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Hyderabad: Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka has announced that all arrangements will be made by the government to conduct TGSRTC recognized union elections, and the implementation of 11 percent fitment in the 2017 Pay Revision Commission (PRC).

He announced that a Committee will be formed comprising the officers and the TGSRTC labour union leaders, to work out the process of merging TGSRTC with the state government as its first step.

For other issues, he said the unions and managements were capable of amicably resolving.

The meeting between the TGSRTC union leaders and the high-level committee of IAS officers took place in the morning at around 10 am on Friday, April 24, at Dr BR Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat, and then the meeting with the ministerial committee went on till after midnight.

Addressing the media, TGSRTC JAC leaders appealed to the workers to resume their duties by celebrating in all the depots, by bursting fireworks, as some of their key demands were fulfilled.

One of the union leaders said that it was a historic day, as the government has agreed to conduct the elections to their unions, which he said, were the only way the workers could could comunicate their problems to the management.

The leaders also felt that the merger, which has been decades long dream of the workers, could now come true.

Demands, negotiations, decisions

The officers went though the 32 demands of the RTC workers point-to-point, listening to the workers’ explanation. The officers reportedly were ready to implement 29 of the 32 demands put forth by the RTC workers, except three contentious issues which required a policy decision from the authorities above them.

The discussions happened in 3 phases during a marathon 12-hour discussion.

Among those three demands was the merger of TGSRTC with the state government, implementing the 2021 and 2025 Pay Revision Commission (PRC), and re-recognising the RTC unions and holding elections for them.

The state government has reportedly decided to form a cabinet sub-committee on the demand for merger of TGSRTC with the state government. The state government (the high-level committee) has communicated to the union leaders that because of Rs 34,000 crore burden that would fall on the state’s exchequer to meet 31 demands pertaining to the TGSRTC workers, they needed more time to implement them.

Make the assurances in public: TGSRTC JAC

The TGSRTC workers were known to have demanded the state government to make a clear statement on paper and in the newspapers, on the demands which the state government has agreed to fulfil immediately, and those demands which the government has assured to roll-out in phases.

One of the demands which received positive response was to stall the transfer of RTC drivers and technicians working in the Greater Hyderabad zone, and to depute them to continue working in the zone even if it meant using their services in the private electric buses being ferried and introduced in the zone.

The state government has also reportedly responded positively to the demand of RTC workers on compassionate appointments under the bread-winner scheme, not under the present contract system, but as permanent appointments with regular pay scale.

Respects paid to deceased RTC driver Shankar Goud

Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, along with ministers Ponnam Prabhakar, Sridhar Babu, Adluri Laxman, Jupally Krishna Rao G Vivek Venkatswamy, and Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao held a meeting with the TGSRTC workers in the evening, which was attended by the four-member high-level committee of IAS officers including Vikas Raj, Sandeep Kumar Sultania, Dana Kishore, and TGSRTC MD Y Nagi Reddy.

The meeting began with the participants observing silence to pay their tributes to Shankar Goud, who laid down his life for the cause of realising the aspirations of RTC workers.

The RTC JAC leaders have made it clear that they will not settle for anything less than 30 percent fitment in 2021 and 2025 PRC.

Bhatti Vikramarka chairs ministerial meeting with TGSRTC leaders

Bhatti Vikramarka said that at a time when he and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy were busy with the election campaign in Tamil Nadu, losing a worker like Shankar Goud was highly unfortunate. He said that any issue could be resolved through discussions. He called upon the RTC union leaders to send a message to the workers, though too late, to prevent anymore untoward incident like Goud’s suicide.

During the discussions, the RTC union leaders appreciated the fact that the state government had cleared the 2013 bonds, implemented the 2017 Pay Revision Commission (PRC), pending Dearness Allowances (DA), and also reinstated 270 workers who were permanently removed from service in the past.

The union leaders said that it was because of no elections being held for RTC recognized unions (which were de-recognized during the previous BRS government), they were unable to spread the information among the workers about the welfare initiatives of the present government.

Bhatti Vikramarka, who reminded the workers about the way they were treated by the BRS government when they had gone on strike for more than 55 days in 2019.

“Nobody is our enemy. I assure you that we won’t treat the workers the way the previous rulers did,” Bhatti assured.