52K APSRTC employees to be absorbed into govt

The Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy cabinet on Wednesday decided to create a new Public Transport Department to absorb over 52,000 employees of the loss-making Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation into the governmentt as the proposed in toto merger of the public transport carrier was found not possible.

The cabinet, which met here under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, accepted the recommendations of the committee headed by former IPS officer C Anjaneya Reddy on RTC, Minister for Transport and Information Perni Venkata Ramaiah (Nani) said.

Accordingly, the RTC staff would be absorbed into the Public Transport Department and re-designated.

The entire process would be completed in three months, the minister told reporters at the end of the Cabinet meeting.

Following the move, the state government would foot the salary and pension bill of RTC staff, amounting to Rs 3,300 crore per annum.

Retirement age of the staff would also rise to 60 years.

The cabinet also approved a proposal for creation of Bus Fare Regulatory Authority that would fix the RTC bus fares, Nani added.

During the election campaign, Jagan had promised to merge the ailing APSRTC with the state government and, on assuming power, constituted an expert committee headed by Anjaneya Reddy, who had earlier served as the Corporations managing director.

According to sources, the Centres concurrence was required for the merger as it held a 31 per cent stake in the state transport body.

Besides, the division of APSRTCs assets and liabilities between AP and Telangana also did not happen yet as per the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

These factors became the stumbling blocks in the merger of APSRTC with the state government, highly placed official sources pointed out.

Even the Anjaneya Reddy Committee was said to have suggested absorption of the employees to ease the financial burden on the public transporter.

The Cabinet deliberated on these issues and gave its nod for the creation of the Public Transport Department to enable the absorption first, in tune with the electoral promise.

APSRTC would henceforth remain a skeletal organisation and the staff absorbed into the government would be re-deployed on deputation to run the corporation, a senior official said.

"All this will basically be paperwork," he noted.