Hyderabad: Former staff of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) who were fired for allegedly not performing their duty well have appealed to the government to reinstate them.
They were removed from service for various reasons including negligent driving, appearing to work in a drunk state and talking on the phone while driving, to name a few. They have been running from pillar to post for the last eight months to get their jobs back.
According to them, the allegations levelled are untrue. Many times other vehicles were found driving in the wrong route thus leading to an accident, however, the blame landed on the RTC drivers.
Over allegations of driving while on a call, they stated that often conductors were not around so it becomes the duty of the driver to collect tickets as well as drive the bus.
“We work under a lot of pressure. Normally the working hours for a city driver is seven hours and for a district driver is eight. But due to less manpower, city drivers end up working for 10 hours while 14 for district drivers,” said a fired conductor, Appa Rao.
“Leaves are seldom granted. If we attend a marriage or a funeral, we have to upload the pictures as proof in the WhatsApp group. There is a lot of pressure. Many of our colleagues have suffered heart attacks due to the pressure,” Rao said.
“I joined the TGSRTC in 2007. Recently a vehicle occurred from the wrong route leading to an accident. It was not my fault but I was dismissed without a proper enquiry by the higher officials,” said a former TGSRTC driver M Krishna worked at the Munuguru depot.
The fired TGSRTC employees said that because due to their unemployment, they have to lean on their families for finances. “Some of us had been working for more than 30 years. Now at this age where should we seek employment?” asked one of the fired employees. Many of them ended up working as daily wage labourers.
