Hyderabad: As the indefinite strike by the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) employees entered the tenth day on Monday, senior ruling TRS leader K. Keshava Rao asked the workers to end the stir and resolve the issues amicably through talks, while a bandh was observed in Khammam protesting the death of a driver who immolated himself.
Rao also appealed to the government, which has taken a tough stand so far and declared the strike as illegal, to consider the employees’ charter, barring the demand for merger of the TSRTC.
Responding to the appeal of the senior TRS leader, a union leader asked Rao to mediate on the issue.
On October 6, chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said that all striking employees would be fired and has refused to hold talks with the unions.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the Joint Action Committee of the employees’ unions submitted a memorandum to state governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, seeking her intervention in the matter and claimed she responded positively.
The developments came in the backdrop of the continuing standoff and the death of two employees, who ended their lives and attempted suicides by two others over the past few days.
Nearly 48,000 workers of TSRTC are on an indefinite strike from October 5 in response to a call by the JAC over demands, including the merger of the corporation with the government and filling up of vacant posts.
In the first signs of a possible softening of the stand by the government, Rao, the TRS parliamentary leader and party secretary-general, appealed to the employees to call off the strike and sort out the issue with the government in a ‘legitimate way.’
He urged the government to consider the employees’ issues, other than the demand to merging the RTC with the government.
Reacting to Rao’s statement, TSRTC-JAC leader E. Ashwathama Reddy told reporters that Rao should mediate and help resolve the issues through talks. However, he said all the issues were linked with the merger and if that was done, other issues would be resolved. “Let the government first begin the process of talks with us,” he said.
Since the strike began, chief minister KCR had taken a tough stand, saying the agitating workers had “self-dismissed” themselves and made it clear that under no circumstances would the RTC be merged with the government. He had also ruled out talks with the employees or taking them back, terming the agitation as “illegal.”
Two employees die, two more attempt to end lives
The 55-year-old driver had succumbed to burns on Sunday, a day after setting himself ablaze, allegedly in protest against the government not conceding to the workers’ demands. Hours after Reddy’s death, conductor Surender Goud killed himself.
In a fresh incident on Monday, a 42-year-old conductor tried to end his life by slashing his left forearm with a blade, but his attempt was foiled and he has been hospitalised and a case registered for attempting suicide, police said. Another TSRTC driver, aged around 40, doused himself with petrol at a depot in Warangal district on Sunday. However, police immediately intervened and foiled his bid.
Ashwathama Reddy said that during the meeting with the governor, the JAC delegation also submitted video-clippings and newspaper reports on the alleged suppression of their agitation by the government.