TRS govt failed to resolve RTC employees strike amicably: BJP

The BJP in Telangana on Wednesday said Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao should quit as it was his failure that resulted in the state Road Transport Corporation (RTC) employees continuing their strike in spite of the deadlines set by the government to resume work.

"Three deadlines (set by the government for staff to return to work) have vanished into thin air. Employees are continuing their strike along with wives and children, without being scared by your threats, sacrificing festivals and not having food," state BJP president K Laxman told reporters.

"This is a moral victory achieved by workmen and directly Chief Minister's failure. We are demanding that (he should) quit, taking responsibility for this failure," he said.

Accusing the TRS government of adopting an adamant attitude towards RTC employees in resolving their problems, Laxman alleged the state government has failed to sort out the issue.

The over one-month-long RTC strike has not only affected normal life but also also crippled public transport system in the state, causing inconvenience to patients, students and employees, he claimed.

Rao has set three deadlines and tried to intimidate the employees but they did not respond, Laxman claimed.

The TRS government is "more interested in usurping the properties of RTC", he alleged.

"The government has hatched a conspiracy to privatise the RTC, but BJP would fight in support of the RTC employees till they get justice," he said.

Laxman said the party has appraised the situation vis-a-vis the RTC strike to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and also to BJP's national working president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Affirming that the BJP would fight against injustice allegedly being meted out to the RTC employees, he said his party would support the "million march" protest on November 9 called by Joint Action Committee (JAC) of striking RTC employees in support of their demands.

Nearly 48,000 employees had commenced an indefinite strike on October 5 across Telangana on a call by the JAC to press their charter of demands, including merger of the corporation with government.

Talking tough, the government had on Monday decided not to allow any of the striking employees to work after the expiry of the November 5 deadline set by it to rejoin duty.

The government had earlier declared the strike to be illegal.

The strike is not justified as the RTC is already making losses, it said.