With the strike by employees of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) entering 28th day on Friday, it became the longest strike in the history of the Corporation in the Telegu states.

Over 48,000 employees of the state-owned public transport utility are on strike since October 5 to press for their 26 demands. Their main demand is the merger of the TSRTC with the government so that they are treated at par with the government employees.

K. Chandrashekhar Rao-led government has, however, rejected the merger demand, saying it would lead to similar demands from 56 other corporations.

The longest strike in RTC was in 2011 when buses remained off the roads for 27 days and the employees of the then Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) from Telangana region joined ‘Sakala Janula Samme’ or the mass strike to demand statehood for Telangana.

The third major strike in APSRTC was witnessed in 2001 when employees struck the work for 24 days, demanding a pay revision.

According to leaders of Joint Action Committee (JAC) of TSRTC employees’ unions the current strike is the worst as 10 employees had lost their lives. While three workers committed suicide, others died due to cardiac arrest.

The JAC leaders have blamed the state government for the deaths, as the Chief Minister declared that the employees ‘dismissed themselves’ by not joining duties, drove them to depression. The striking employees were also facing financial problems as they had not been paid salaries for the month of September.

TSRTC, which has accumulated losses of Rs 1,200 crore, said it has no money to pay the September salaries. The Corporation told Telangana High Court that it has Rs 7 crore while over Rs 200 crore was required to pay for the salaries.

The Corporation is suffering daily a loss of Rs1 to Rs 1.5 crore due to the strike as TSRTC is managing to operate partial services with the help of temporary employees.

On the direction of the high court, the TSRTC last week held talks with the leaders of the striking workers on the 21 demands excluding the merger demand, but it failed to find any solution to the stalemate.

At the previous hearing on October 28, the High Court asked the government whether it can to provide Rs 47 crore to meet some demands of the employees to end the strike. However, the government expressed its inability to do so on the ground that it gave the Corporation more funds than what it owes.

The current spell of the strike also turned into a rallying point for the opposition and all groups opposed to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), thus posing the first major challenge to Chandrashekhar Rao since Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.

Backed by the entire opposition, trade unions and students’ groups, the JAC had called for Telangana shutdown on October 19. This was the first shutdown against Chandrashekhar Rao, who had led many such protests during the Telangana movement.

At the public meeting organised by the JAC on October 30 in Hyderabad, the JAC and opposition leaders threatened a Million March like the one organised at the peak of the Telangana agitation. They slammed the Chief Minister for his adamant attitude and autocratic style of functioning.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, blamed the RTC union leaders and the opposition parties for the current situation. He remarked that the ‘TSRTC is finished and nobody can save it’. He said ‘by going on strike during festival season, the employees cut the very branch they were sitting on’.

Unfazed by the strike and the protests, the Chief Minister has asked the TSRTC officials to hire more private buses to run under the Corporation. He has also dropped hints of issuing permits to private operators. Though ruling out total privatisation of the TSRTC, he made it clear that the Corporation will not remain the same.

The indefinite strike by employees of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) entered 25th day on Tuesday even as High Court allowed them to hold a public meeting in Hyderabad on Wednesday after the police denied them permission for the same.

There were no signs of an early end to the strike by over 48,000 employees of the state-owned transport utility with both the government and the employees sticking to their stands.

The High Court granted conditional permission to Joint Action Committee (JAC) of striking employees to hold a public meeting at Saroornagar in Hyderabad on Wednesday. JAC approached the court after the police denied permission for the same.

The court directed JAC to hold the public meeting from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m on Wednesday. Leaders of the striking employees had invited leaders of the unions of government employees, teachers and workers for the meeting.

Meanwhile, the High Court on Tuesday continued hearing the arguments on Public Interest Litigation (PILs) seeking direction to end the strike. The government submitted to the court it can’t provide Rs 47 crore required to meet some of the demands of the employees, saying it had already given to TSRTC more money than what ought to have been given.

The division bench headed by Chief Justice R. S. Chauhan once again took exception to the stand taken by the government and remarked why it can’t release the money to solve a problem which will provide relief to people of the entire state.

The court also found fault with the manner in which officials submitted only selected statistics while avoiding details of the money the government owed to the Corporation. It directed the government to submit the details by October 31 and adjourned the hearing to November 1.

Earlier, Advocate General (AG) B. S. Prasad informed the court that reimbursement arrears to RTC in undivided Andhra Pradesh were Rs 1,099 crore and out of this Telangana has to pay 42 per cent and Andhra Pradesh 58 per cent. The court was told that the issue of RTC bifurcation was still under the consideration of the Centre.

When AG informed the court that the government has so far given Rs 4,235 crore to RTC, the bench asked if this means the government need not pay the arrears towards reimbursement. The judges asked the government to clearly specify the arrears and not the amount given to RTC.

JAC counsel claimed that in addition to Rs 1,099 crore the government owed to RTC in undivided Andhra Pradesh, the Corporation has not received Rs 1,375 crore towards bus passes subsidy from 2014 to 2019. He said that the government owes another Rs 1,496 crore to RTC under the Municipal Act.

Earlier, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao held a review meeting with top officials to discuss the points to be raised in the court during the hearing on PILs.

Talks between the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) and striking employees on Saturday failed to resolve the impasse as the strike entered 22nd day.

After talks with TSRTC officials, leaders of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of employees said the strike would continue. However, they expressed readiness for another round of talks, if invited.

JAC convenor Ashwathama Reddy, who along three other co-convenors attended the talks, said the meeting took place amid restrictions and they were not even allowed to carry mobile phones. “They took away our phones. In the history of RTC, I have not seen such a meeting,” he said.

JAC co-convenor V.S. Rao said talks with even enemy countries are not held in such an environment.

They said the management confined the meeting to 21 demands, while the JAC wanted talks on all 26 demands and alleged it came to the meeting with a fixed agenda. “They wanted to hold talks only because of the court,” another co-convenor Raji Reddy said.

TSRTC managing director incharge Sunil Sharma said talks were held on the direction of the high court. JAC leaders left the meeting midway saying they would come back after consultations with other leaders, but didn’t return till late in the evening, he added.

The talks began in the afternoon after the TSRTC, acting on the direction of the Telangana High Court, extended an invitation to the JAC, which is spear-heading the strike to press for various demands, the main being TSRTC’s merger with the government.

The government had on Wednesday set up a committee of TSRTC officials to look into the demands, except the merger.

The committee submitted its report to the government on Friday. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao discussed the report with Transport Minister P. Ajay Kumar and officials. It was at this meeting that he directed the TSRTC to invite the JAC for talks.

The talks are being held two days before the next hearing of public interest litigations (PILs) in the high court. At the previous hearing last week, the court had asked the government to hold talks with the employees.

The strike by nearly 50,000 employees began on October 5. The government took a tough stand and declared the strike illegal and refused to hold talks.

KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known, said over 48,000 employees dismissed themselves by not joining the duty before the expiry of deadline. He threatened to deal firmly with those trying to disrupt TSRTC bus services with the help of temporary employees.

He also asked officials to recruit more drivers and conductors on temporary basis and hire more private buses.

The strike took political overtone with the entire opposition extending their support. JAC has been staging protests across the state. It also called a state-wide shutdown last week.

The strike witnessed suicide by two employees, while some others died of cardiac arrest, allegedly due to depression caused by the loss of job and non-receipt of salary.

KCR stated on Thursday the TSRTC had no money to pay salaries. He even remarked the TSRTC was finished and nobody could save it from shutting down. Blaming the union for the situation, he hinted that the government would go ahead with privatization of the corporation.

Leaders of the Left parties and people’s organisations observed a day-long fast here on Thursday in support of the strike by employees of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), which entered its 13th day.

Several leaders and activists of Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), other Left parties and people’s organisations participated in the mass hunger strike to show solidarity with the striking employees.

CPI-state Secretary Chada Venkat Reddy, CPI-M state Secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram and other leaders paid tributes to two employees, who committed suicide earlier this week to protest the government’s decision to sack 48,000 striking employees.

Professor Nageshwar, eminent academician Chukka Ramaiah, TSRTC Joint Action Committee leader Ashwathama Reddy also addressed the participants.

The speakers blamed the government for the TSRTC running into huge losses. Ashwathama Reddy pointed out that the government is collecting Rs 300 crore as tax on diesel every year. He demanded that the state government waive the tax on diesel as done in Tamil Nadu.

They said that while private buses are allowed to operate on profit-making routes, the TSRTC buses are run on loss-making routes.

Professor Nageshwar said the strike by employees was not for their salaries but for protection of the TSRTC. He alleged that the government is carrying out a false propaganda to blame employees for the TSRTC’s losses.

Meanwhile, police arrested scores of students at Osmania University when they were trying to take out a rally to Pragathi Bhavan, the official residence of the Chief Minister, in support of the TSRTC employees. Raising slogans against the government, the students tried to march from Arts College.

However, police locked both the gates of the campus and prevented students from coming out. There was heated argument between policemen and leaders of student groups like the SFI, the AISF and the PDSU. There was mild tension as the students tried to break the police cordon.

A conductor of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) committed suicide on Sunday, hours after a driver, who attempted self-immolation on Saturday, died at a hospital here.

Depressed over losing his job over the ongoing strike, Surender Goud hanged himself at his house in Karwan area in Hyderabad.

The conductor, who was associated with Ranigunj bus depot in the city, was worried over not receiving the salary for September and was unable to pay EMI for his house loan. The cheque he had issued towards paying the EMI had bounced.

Surender Goud took the extreme step hours after TSRTC driver Srinivas Reddy succumbed to the burn injuries at a hospital here.

Srinivas Reddy, who set himself afire in Khammam town and sustained critical injuries, breathed his last at the Apollo DRDO Hospital, where he was admitted late on Saturday.

The driver had resorted to the extreme step during a protest by TSRTC employees, whose indefinite strike entered the ninth day on Sunday.

The employee unions have alleged that the driver was depressed over losing his job as Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has announced that over 48,000 employees dismissed themselves by not joining duty before the deadline set by the government. The Chief Minister has ruled out taking back the employees into TSRTC and has asked the officials to recruit new staff.

The driver’s death triggered tension near the hospital in Kanchanbagh area as leaders of TSRTC employee unions and opposition parties reached there and staged a protest against the government, blaming it for the employee’s death.

The protestors raised slogan against the government and the police had a tough time in controlling the crowd at the hospital.

Tension prevailed in Khammam district as incidents of stone pelting on TSRTC buses were reported since Saturday evening.

Amid tight security, Srinivas Reddy’s body was shifted to Khammam town, where his last rites were performed on Sunday night.

TSRTC employee unions have called for a shutdown in Khammam on Monday to protest over the self-immolation of Srinivas Reddy.

Meanwhile, another driver of Khammam depot, Venkateshwara Chary, has attempted self-immolation. He poured petrol on himself but his colleagues and the police stopped him from taking the extreme step.

The striking employees on Sunday intensified their protest by resorting to ‘vanta varpu’, or cooking on roads, along with their family members.

The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of TSRTC employees unions has announced week-long protest programmes. It has also called for a state-wide shutdown on October 19.

The Chief Minister has rejected all the demands of the striking employees, including the main one for merger of TSRTC with the government. He also ruled out talks with them.

With the Chief Minister directing TSRTC to restore 100 per cent bus services in three days, the TSRTC on Sunday issued a notification for recruitment of bus drivers, conductors and other employees on temporary basis.