TSRTC strike: KCR sacks 48,000 employees; trade bodies to move court

Hyderabad, Oct 07: The Telangana government sacked over 48,000 employees and workers of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) from service on Sunday, after they launched an indefinite strike demanding solution to their long-pending problems.

The Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao also called the strike as an 'unpardonable crime.

"It is an unpardonable crime that they went on a strike during the festive season and at a time when the TSRTC was incurring a huge loss of Rs. 1,200 crore and its debt burden had gone up to Rs. 5,000 crore," he said.

Nearly 50,000 employees and workers of the road transport corporation had been on strike since Friday midnight, following a call given by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Telangana RTC employees and workers' unions since Saturday.

Many state buses stayed off the roads, affecting thousands in the festival season.

The state government has hired 2,500 buses for the festival rush. Some 4,114 buses will be given state carriage permission and brought under the RTC. The situation is likely to stabilise in 15 days, it said.

KCR also announced that the government would start recruiting new staff for the RTC and the process would be completed at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Trade bodies of TSRTC will challenge the state government's decision to sack about 48,000 agitating employees, as and when they are served with dismissal or suspension notices, a union leader said.

Telangana Mazdoor Union president E Ashwathama Reddy, however, clarified that the agitating workers have not received any dismissal or suspension notice from the government or the management of RTC.

His statement comes a day after the state government declared the indefinite strike as "illegal" and rejected their demands for a merger with it.

(with PTI inputs)