The members of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation Joint Action Committee (TSRTC-JAC) employees launched a strike on Saturday here.
Their one of the main demands is to merge the Regional Transport Committee (RTC) with the government and to prohibit the use of electric buses. More than two thousand buses will not run in the state due to strike.
Prakash an employee while speaking to ANI said: "Our demand from the government is that the Telangana Regional Transport Corporation should be merged with the government. Second, we need higher wages. The government had promised us higher pay scale but they have not increased it so far. More than 9,000 people have taken retirement this year but they have not hired anyone to fill the vacant posts. The workload has increased on us."
"We are facing losses due to the diesel tax and road tax which the state government is taking from us. We want the government to remove these taxes," he added.
"The government should listen to our demands. They are making us suffer and now they are threatening us that we will lose our jobs if we participate in the strike. This is not at all fair," said another employee.
The state government has released a statement warning the employees to not participate in the strike or else they will be terminated.
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The government has asked the higher officials to consider the employees who report to the bus station on or before 6 pm on October 6. Others will not be considered as RTC employs at any cost, as the Dussehra festival is ahead.
Meanwhile, the government has planned to run 7,000 buses in the state to facilitate public for the festival and the authorities have invited private persons to run the buses and on the other hand, they spoke to neighbouring states for providing more buses to see that public face no difficulties due to strike.
Ashwatama Reddy, RTC, JAC President has urged all the employees of RTC to participate in the strike and see that the demands of RTC employs will be considered by the government.