Telangana HC nod for privatization of RTC; employees feel let down.

Source – hindustantimes.com

In yet another blow to the employees of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation who offered to end their strike and return to their duties, the high court on Friday upheld the decision of the state cabinet to privatize 50 per cent of the RTC bus services.

A division bench of the high court comprising chief justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and justice A Abhishek Reddy dismissed a petition filed by Telangana Democratic Forum convenor P L Vishweshwar Rao challenging the decision of the state cabinet taken on November 2 to privatize 5,100 RTC buses services.

The high court bench said it could not interfere in the decision of the state cabinet, as the government had powers to privatize public transport under Section 102 of the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988.

Advocate general B S Prasad Rao, arguing on behalf of the state government, brought to the notice of the high court that the exercise of privatizing the public transport would be conducted under the aegis of the Principal Secretary, Transport.

Ch Prabhakar, arguing for the petitioner, said the high court judgment would be challenged in the Supreme Court, since privatization would throw thousands of RTC workers on the roads.

The RTC employees, who had been on strike since October 5, had fought a bitter legal battle in the high court, even as chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao refused to consider any of their demands including merger of RTC with the government, revision of their pay scales and recruitment of new staff.

On November 18, the high court threw up its hands on resolving the crisis and referred the matter to the labour department to settle the issue through the labour court. It said it cannot force the government to hold talks with the employees nor can it direct the employees to withdraw the strike.

Following the high court order, the Joint Action Committee of RTC employees’ unions on Wednesday announced that the employees were ready to call off their strike without any conditions and return to their duties, if the government creates a congenial atmosphere for them.

But there was no response from the government. On Friday, when RTC employees in Warangal went to their depot to join duty saying that they had called off their strike, the depot managers refused to take them into duties saying there were no instructions from the government. Similar incidents of RTC employees being turned down were reported from Khammam and Jangaon districts.

KCR, who held a review meeting with senior officials at his camp office on Thursday night, indicated that it was impossible to run the RTC in the present circumstances in view of the precarious financial condition of the corporation.

An official statement from the CMO said RTC was in huge debt amounting to Rs 5,000 crore out of which about Rs 2,000 crore was required immediately to pay salaries, provident fund dues and other dues like payment for purchase of diesel and clearing of debts.

“On an average, the RTC will incur an expenditure of Rs 640 crore a month, which is impossible for the corporation and the government to bear,” the official release quoting the chief minister said.

Now that the high court has given the green signal for privatization, the government is likely to take a decision in that direction shortly, an official in the Bus Bhavan, the RTC headquarters in Hyderabad said.

JAC convenor E Ashwathama Reddy expressed disappointment over the judgment and said the employees had no option now but to continue their agitation. “We shall seek the Centre’s intervention in resolving the crisis,” he said.