T'gana RTC employees call for 'Chalo Tank Bund' protest

The employees unions of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (RTC), who have been on strike since October 5 over various demands, on Thursday said a 'Chalo Tank Bund' protest would be organised on Saturday to highlight their grievances and the state government's attitude towards the stir.

The employees unions' leader Aswathama Reddy urged RTC employees to turn up in large numbers for the protest.

The strike would be resolved if Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who has reportedly been holding long meetings on the issue, talks to the unions for some time, Reddy claimed.

The Tank Bund Road, on the banks of Hussain Sagar lake here, connects Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

The opposition Congress and BJP have announced their support to the 'Chalo Tank Bund' protest.

State Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy asked party workers to participate and make the protest a success.

The RTC employees Joint Action Committee (JAC) has sought support to the event, he said.

Chief Minister Rao is behaving "like a dictator" though the RTC employees have been on strike for over a month now, the PCC president alleged.

The strike by the employees entered the 34th day on Thursday and the workmen organised protests in various forms, including demonstrations, sit-ins and submitting memoranda to public representatives, at different places in the state.

A 32-year-old man, working as a mechanic in a bus depot here, allegedly attempted suicide by consuming poison at his house in Medchal near here on Wednesday night. However, relatives noticed it and got him shifted to a nearby hospital, the family members said.

The state government had earlier set a deadline for the employees to resume duty by the midnight of November 5.

The government had said if the stir continued, it would go ahead with the plan to permit private bus operators to run services in the remaining 5,000 of the total of 10,400 routes, leading to a situation where the TSRTC virtually ceased to exist