Hyderabad: Employees of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) held a two-hour-long protest across the state on Saturday morning against Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan’s delay in signing the TSRTC merger bill which would make 43474 employees of the public transport body into state government employees.
As part of the protests, the employees boycotted work from 6 to 8 am in the morning leading to delays in services in several parts of the state.
The Telangana Mazdoor Union (TMU), which led these protests, also has decided to hold protests in front of the Raj Bhavan at 11 am and has given a call to all workers to reach the necklace road. Due to these protests, public transport commuters are hit with scores of them seen waiting at several bus stops across the city.
Responding to the protests, the Governor said that she is ‘pained’ to know about the strike by the workers creating ‘inconvenience to the common public’.
“I am pained to know about the strike conducted by RTC employees creating inconvenience to common public…I want to convey that I am always with them even during the previous strike I was with them ..now also I am studying it carefully because their rights should be safeguarded,” she said in a tweet.
The protests come after the Governor’s statement on Saturday said that she will sign the TSRTC merger bill (Absorption of employees into government service) after examining all the legal issues around it and the process will take ‘more time’.
The state cabinet took a decision on July 31, Monday to recognise over 43,000 employees of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) as employees of the state government.
The Cabinet, at its meeting chaired by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, constituted a sub-committee comprising officials to frame the guidelines.
After the bill is passed, TSRTC workers will be classified as government employees, making them eligible for all government benefits. government employees thus eligible for all government benefits.
The BRS government’s decision gains significance as it comes very close to the upcoming assembly elections end of this year.
