CM KCR instructs officials to release pending salaries of TSRTC employees

At high-level review meeting on TSRTC at Pragati Bhavan here on Sunday, the Chief Minister emphasised the need to restore the RTC services and strengthen the Corporation

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Sunday directed the Finance Department to immediately release Rs 120 crore to the Telangana State Road Transportion Corporation (TSRTC) towards payment of two months salaries deferred to its employees during the lockdown period.

The Chief Minister also instructed the TSRTC authorities to make arrangements for restoration of RTC bus services to pre-Covid era across the State, and to increase the bus services to 50 per cent in Greater Hyderabad limits from the present 25 per cent.

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He was confident that by increasing the city bus services, the number of people travelling to Hyderabad and back in RTC buses from the districts will also increase.

The Chief Minister, speaking at a high-level review meeting on TSRTC at Pragati Bhavan here, emphasised the need to restore RTC services and strengthen the Corporation which suffered severe setbacks due to the pandemic. He said the TSRTC, which faced severe hardships, was slowly moving towards profits with the support provided by the State government when the pandemic paralysed the services completely. He assured all support to revive and strengthen the TSRTC apart from discussing measures to be initiated to ensure job security to its employees.

Protecing PSUs

Chandrashekhar Rao said the State government has been protecting Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) like RTC despite the challenges that they pose and providing job security to scores of employees working in these companies. He pointed out that the State government had not only resisted any attempt to increase private participation in the power sector, but also regularised the jobs of thousands of electricity contract employees.

‘Won’t relax till RTC revives’

“While the Centre has been privatising public sector companies like LIC, the State government is not following the path and instead, has been protecting them facing all the challenges posed by their operation. I will not relax till we restore TSRTC services completely and put it back on the right path. As long as I am alive, I will make all efforts to protect the TSRTC,” he declared.

Further, the Chief Minister stated that while lakhs of families were directly dependent on TSRTC for livelihood, the Corporation was also providing one of the cheapest modes of transporation for the poor. “For these specific reasons, the State government will provide all the financial support required to keep TSRTC afloat without taking into account profit and loss,” he said.

The TSRTC officials informed the Chief Minister that due to Covid pandemic and with people preferring to use private vehicles, occupancy rate in RTC buses had come down drastically which resulted in heavy losses for the Corporation.

Responding to this, the Chief Minister instructed the officials to review, analyse and take appropriate decisions to overcome the hurdles created by the pandemic to restore RTC operations to pre-Covid period. He pointed out that people were coming out of their homes and travelling even as several institutions were expanding their operations to pre-pandemic times. “Under these circumstances, TSRTC authorities should study, analyse and discuss the measures required to be taken to make people patronise RTC once again,” he reiterated.

The Chief Minister observed that the cargo services introduced by TSRTC had become a big hit and people were patronising it. He hoped that like Indian Railways, TSRTC would also earn profits through its cargo services and expressed his happiness over the TSRTC setting Million Parcel Transport record. He congratulated Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar and the officials concerned.

Ajay Kumar and TSRTC officials thanked the Chief Minister for his instructions to hold talks with their Andhra Pradesh counterparts which ensured transport rights to operate buses for lakhs of kilometres in Andhra Pradesh.

Besides, Ajay Kumar, Sabita Indrareddy, Rythu Bandhu Samithi State President Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Chief Minister’s Office Principal Secretary S Narsing Rao, Principal Secretary (Finance) Ramakrishna Rao, Secretary (Revenue) Seshadri, CMO officials, MAUD Director Satyanarayana, Panchayat Raj Commissioner Raghunandan Rao, senior RTC officials and others participated in the meeting.

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