State-owned buses remained off the roads in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for a fifth day on Sunday with employees of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) continuing their strike, defying court orders.
Even a day after Hyderabad High Court termed the strike illegal and asked the employees to call off the strike immediately, over one lakh employees stayed away from duty.
The two governments, however, were making fresh attempts to end the impasse by inviting the leaders of trade unions for talks. While a cabinet sub-committee of Telangana Sunday morning held talks, a similar panel of Andhra Pradesh is holding a meeting in the evening.
Telangana Home Minister N. Narasimha Reddy, who was leading the three-member ministerial committee, told reporters after the talks that they will brief Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao about the deliberations.
The employees are demanding 43 percent hike in salaries at par with the government employees in the two states but the management of APSRTC has agreed for 27 percent hike in view of the poor financial condition of the organisation.
About 20,000 buses of APSRTC remained off the roads, paralysing public road transport services in the two states. The management is running partial services with the help of contract workers.
A three-member cabinet sub-committee of Andhra Pradesh headed by Finance Minister Y. Ramakrishnudu is holding talks with leaders of striking employees to resolve the issue.
Meanwhile, the APSRTC management has also invited leaders of employees in Telangana for talks in the evening.