Harish Rao writes open letter to CM Revanth Reddy on RTC merger

BRS leader and former Minister T Harish Rao wanted the State government to speed up the process for merger of the State Road Transport Corporation (RTC) with the government by announcing the long awaited 'Appointment Day'

Hyderabad: BRS leader and former Minister T Harish Rao on Sunday wanted the State government to speed up the process for merger of the State Road Transport Corporation (RTC) with the government by announcing the long awaited ‘Appointment Day’.

In an open letter addressed to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, he said the Congress Party had also given its assurance for completing the merger process during the Assembly polls. The merger was proposed by the previous BRS regime and the bills were passed in the Assembly. The Governor did not approve the merger bill initially by seeking clarifications, but gave assent as the government gave the clarifications sought by Raj Bhavan. The RTC employees also mounted pressure for approval of the bills. But the Appointed Day could not be announced as the poll code came in its way. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that the salaries to the RTC employees were paid from the treasury at the earliest, he said.

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The RTC employees and workers expected the culmination of the merger process the day the government launched the free travel for women in RTC buses. It is high time the government issued the merger GO, Harish Rao said, also drawing the attention of State government to the big rise in the number of people using RTC buses in the State. The government should buy at least 2000 more buses to meet the rush, he said.

Besides buying 1000 diesel buses, the BRS regime had engaged some 500 electric buses on hire in the State. He also appealed to the Chief Minister to make cash payment for the Pay Revision Commission bonds issued by the government.