Dispute between Ponnam and Harish over TSRTC employees

Hyderabad: Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar and BRS MLA T Harish Rao on Wednesday sparred in the Assembly over the issue of treating RTC employees as government employees. The minister alleged that the BRS government tried to abolish the RTC in the last ten years, while at the end of its term it came up with a merger proposal and is now asking about the welfare of employees. The issue cropped up during Question Hour when Harish Rao sought to know at what stage the proposal to treat RTC employees as government employees was and by when it would be implemented. Replying, Prabhakar said the BRS tried to abolish the RTC in its ten-year term. “They also abolished labour unions and today sought to revive the unions. The previous government appointed a retired official, who is a relative of BRS, as the MD of the corporation. At the end of the term it formed a committee and announced recognition without any discussion. It tried to give a political colour to the matter by inciting employees against the governor,” he said. “What rights do you have? Do you have the right to talk about revival of unions after cancelling them? Apologise to the workers for not caring about them when they were dying during the 56-day strike. Have you purchased even a single bus in the last 10 years? After our government came, new buses were purchased,” the minister stressed. He informed that the government has paid Rs 80 crore of the outstanding bonds of Rs 280 crore pending since 2013. After the government came, the PF and CCS funds belonging to the employees were not used. The BRS government had used Rs 4,000 crore in workers’ money. Today, the government allocated Rs 300 crore per month under the Mahalakshmi scheme. Already, 70 crore women have traveled free in RTC buses. The government had paid Rs 2,200 crore to TGRTC through Mahalakshmi during the journey. We have given jobs to the children of deceased RTC workers through compassionate appointments. We are developing MRI and CT scan facilities in RTC Tarnaka Hospital. The minister said that earlier 45 lakh people used to travel, but now 56 lakh people are traveling regularly. He admitted that the workload on the employees was high; the employees have been given eight Overtime was paid after hours of duty. Prabhakar said the occupancy of buses had increased to 95%; operating losses had also come down