Telangana Governor calls RTC strike ‘Government sponsored, forced, orchestrated’

Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan continued to keep over 43,000 employees of the State Road Transport Corporation on tenterhooks without permitting the TSRTC (Absorption of Employees into Government Service) Bill to be tabled in the Assembly

Hyderabad: Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Saturday continued to keep over 43,000 employees of the State Road Transport Corporation on tenterhooks without permitting the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (Absorption of Employees into Government Service) Bill to be tabled in the Assembly.

Soundararajan, who sought a five-point clarification from the government late on Friday, got a detailed clarification from the Chief Secretary by noon on Saturday, but was not happy and reportedly sought more clarifications, delaying the process further.

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However, the entire episode smacked of more hidden undertones when she tweeted at 5.30 pm alleging that she was yet to get a reply from the government, and also when her tweet accused the government of ‘sponsoring’ and ‘forcing’ the State-wide strike that was staged by TSRTC employees against her earlier in the day. Even while claiming that there was no personal or political interest in withholding her consent, she alleged that the strike caused inconvenience to the common public besides ‘stress’ to all employees.

Her argument that the bill should not be passed ‘haphazardly’ without proper discussion, also sounded contradictory, given the fact that there could be no discussion on the bill unless she gave her consent. RTC unions and several other quarters also pointed out if she delayed it any further, the merger would be impossible since this Assembly session could well be the last one before the Assembly elections later this year. This, they said, gave her actions a political shade and hinted at attempts to stall the merger.

This theory gathered strength with her tweet, in which she claimed that during the video conference she had with striking employees who laid siege to Raj Bhavan, ‘one of the JAC representatives’ told her that employee unions had not given any call for the strike.

“It is completely a government sponsored and forced strike,” she said, attributing it to the so-called representative, adding that ‘even women employees were not spared’, that the employees were ‘threatened and forced’ to give a strike call, and also that some MLAs and a Minister had orchestrated the protest.

The tweet, which was replete with syntax and spelling errors and ending with a confusing word “public inconvwelfare”, also appeared to be done in haste. Part of it was a first person account from Soundararajan – “ I am pained to know about the strike…”, while some portions were a third person account- “Governor informed the employees that she is concerned…”.

Earlier, Soundararajan, who claimed she was ‘with’ the RTC employees and that she was “studying” the bill “carefully because their rights should be safeguarded”, sought clarifications from the Chief Secretary on the equity, loan, grant or any other assistance of the Government of India to the RTC, on the permissibility of altering the nature of the Corporation, whether the Industrial Disputes Act was applicable and on applicability of pension provisions to TSRTC employees on par with other Government employees.

To this, Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari replied that the Bill provides only for absorption of the TSRTC into government service. The Corporation Board would continue as the apex body of the TSRTC, and no employee would be put to any hardship in terms of salaries and allowances. The TSRTC would continue to function in its existing legal entity and form in all other respects, she said.