Govt has not succumbed to World Bank conditions: Minister

Hyderabad, Mar 22 (UNI) Asserting that the Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh had not succumbed to World Bank conditions as alleged by the opposition, Andhra Pradesh Transport Minister K Lakshminarayanan today said there was no question of privatising the state-owned Road Transport Corporation.

Making a statement in the Assembly, he alleged that the TDP, which had "ruined" the RTC when it was in power by pushing it deep into the red, had no right to criticise the Government.

The World Bank was against major irrigation projects, Public Sector Units and provision of free power to farmers. Still, the Rajasekhara Reddy Government had taken up major irrigation projects in a big way, strengthened PSUs and successfully provided power free of cost to farmers.

The Minister said eight new transport depots would be opened in the Telangana region shortly and land had been identified.

The TDP had extended concessions to various sections of people but did not reimburse the RTC, he claimed.

After reduction of Motor Vehicle Tax from 12.5 per cent to seven per cent in rural areas and 10 to five per cent in urban areas and reimbursement of Rs 368.50 crore by the Congress Government to the Corporation, the RTC had generated profit of Rs 95.44 crore till January this year.

Identifying locational disadvantages, uneconomical fleet size, unremunerative trips, increased overhead costs as reasons for 16 loss-making depots, the Minister said it had been decided to close eight of them. Neither the travelling public nor the staff working in maintenance and traffic wings would be affected by the decision, he added.

He, stressed, that no employee would be retrenched and employees rendered surplus due to closure of depots would be redeployed elsewhere suitably.

Earlier, cutting across partylines, members expressed concern over closure of RTC depots ''on the pretext of loss-making'' and wanted the Government to make good the losses by curbing illicit operations and improving occupancy ratio.

UNI