Over 1.56 commuters hit as RTC staff goes on strike Hyderabad, May 6 (INN): More than 1.50 crore commuters were badly hit as nearly 1.2 lakh employees of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) went on indefinite strike from midnight demanding payment of 43 fitment allowance on par with State Government employees.
A total of 10,576 buses in Andhra Pradesh and 9,370 in Telangana remained off the roads on Wednesday causing extreme inconvenience to students, office goers and other commuters. Meanwhile, Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, N Chandrababu Naidu and K Chandrashekar Rao respectively, have made separate appeals to the employees unions to call off the strike in view of inconvenience being caused to the general public. On the other hand, the RTC management has begun the exercise to resume the services by utilising contract employees. Describing the strike as illegal, RTC Managing Director N Sambasiva Rao directed the contract employees to either join the services by tomorrow noon or face termination.
According to sources, the RTC management is most likely to invoke ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) against the employees if they fail to withdraw the strike. The management has made it clear that it was not in a position to revise the salaries due to weak economic condition and in view of bifurcation process beginning from May 14.
Following strike, the ever busy Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) and Jubilee Bus Station in the State capital remained deserted. Similarly, all bus stations in Andhra Pradesh including Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupathi wore a deserted look on Wednesday. The police of both the Telugu States have also imposed prohibitory orders at almost all bus depots.
News Posted: 6 May, 2015
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