T'gana CM holds meeting on transport workers strike

Telangana Chief Minister K S Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday held a meeting with officials on the TSRTC employees' strike issue and decided to study in detail the entire matter before taking a final call on its course of action.

The meeting also decided to take into consideration the pendingmatters related to the indefinite strike by the employees of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation in the state high Court and all other relevant issues.

The highcourt may announce its verdict on privatisation of RTC routes on Friday, a release from the CM's office said late on Thursday night.

The government decided to study in detail the financial position of TSRTC, the decisions of the court so far, matters pending in the court and other related issues, the release said.

The governmentis of the view that a permanent solution should be found to the problems, it said adding providing better transport facilitiesto citizens would be the first priority.

A view has emerged in the meeting that RTC cannot be run in the present form given the heavy financial implications involved in the affairs of the corporation, it said.

The TSRTC employees have been on strike since October 5 in support of their various demands, including merger of the Corporation with government.

However, they have recently decided to put off their demand for merger and on Wednesday offered to resume duties if their demands were referred to the labour court and congenial atmosphere was created by the government.

The state government has earlier declared the strike to be illegal and said the RTC was not in a position to concede the demands of workmen.

The Telangana High Court had directed the Commissioner of Labour to take a call on whether the ongoing strike by the unions of TSRTC should be referred to the Labour Court or not, in two weeks to decide the legality of the strike.

Union Minister G Kishan Reddy onThursday said the Centre would take steps to ensure that thestriking TSRTC employees get justice.

"Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has assured that he will speak to the Chief Minister, and do justice to the workmen by speaking to the Telangana government on their problems..," Kishan Reddy told reporters in Delhi.

Reddy, Lok Sabha member from Secunderabad here, and otherBJP MPs from Telangana met Gadkari in the national capital.