RTC stir: stalemate continues

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, OCT. 17. The stalemate on the APSRTC strike continued for the third day with the JAC leaders not coming forward to renegotiate the issue and the Government preferring to press into service as many services as possible with the help of all and sundry.

The latter claimed that it could manage to run 2,000 buses and as many private buses were also on the roads. The JAC leaders, Mr.B.Rama Rao, Mr.P.Ram Mohan Rao and Mr.R.Laxmaiah, at a press conference termed the claim as false and said even in case the Government operated some vehicles, they were jeopardising the lives of people.

One jeep driver of a divisional manager of Sanathnagar Bus Depot was seriously injured when an auto hit him from behind when he was replacing a deflated tyre of a bus. He was admitted to a hospital in Miyapur, they said. Six employees of Dilsukhnagar and Vijayawada (Autonagar) bus depots were suspended and the crackdown on the striking workers continued, they said.

The leaders said that houses of union leaders and union offices continue to be raided by the police to scare away the workers and at least 400 employees had been picked up and non-bailable cases foisted against them. Dismissing the claims of the Government that it could run more buses, they said the issue was the strike which was successful but not how many buses could be run. Running special trains would not solve the problem.

They said that the strike was continuing because the Government did not discuss 60 demands out of the 68 and offered a package deal. The talks could resume afresh either at the Cabinet Sub- Committee level or even with the management. The Government should not treat this as a prestige issue, they said. There were no preconditions for the resumption of talks, they said.

Responding to this, Mr.Devender Goud and Mr.K.Srihari, Ministers, said the matter of prestige was not at all involved. The Government offered what it could financially and promised to restore the health of the organisation through various measures. The crux of the issue was the occupancy ratio. If it could go up, the incentives offered would be sufficient to the employees.

They also refuted the claim of the JAC that they did not discuss 60 other demands. In fact, the matter could be sorted out with the management itself, the leaders were told and they also agreed for that, they pointed out. They came to the Sub-Committee with only three major demands, they said.

Illegal operations would be curbed they repeated and urged the employees to resume duties. Unprecedented floods were also causing concern and it was time the employees got back to work, they said.

"If they are not seeking financial demands - other than what we agreed for - they can come to us. They could even talk to the MD if they feel so. But, do come", they said.

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Section  : Southern States
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