TSRTC merger process delayed

It is learnt that already 1,800 RTC employees have already retired so far since the announcement of the merger. More than 300 employees will retire in next two months.

Hyderabad: The State government appears to have put the TSRTC merger process on a backburner leading to concern among the transport corporation employees.

Even after six months of coming to power, the Congress government is maintaining a studied silence on the issue raising the hackles of the RTC employees.

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The government has to finalise the procedures for the merger process based on the report of the high level committee appointed by the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government.

Once the RTC merger process is completed, the salary burden on the organisation will completely solved. Employees of the corporation will come under Pay Revision Commission (PRC) only if RTC was merged.

The salaries also will be on par with that of the government employees. But as the merger process drags on, retiring RTC employees are losing those benefits.

It is learnt that already 1,800 RTC employees have already retired so far since the announcement of the merger. More than 300 employees will retire in next two months.

Retirement as a government employee is expected to have special financial benefits. TSRTC, which was heading towards bankruptcy due to severe financial difficulties, was merged with the government in August 2023 by the previous government.

In the first week of September, the previous government issued a gazette notification after the governor gave the seal of approval to the bill. RTC employees have become government employees.

With this, about 43,373 people got job security. If this process is completed, the employees of the organization will also get the pension facility and RTC staff will become employees of State Public Transport Department.

The RTC workers are expressing their impatience as the Congress government did not at least give a nod to the merger process, which was already 90 per cent complete. Most of the IAS officers in the committee formed to formulate the rules have been transferred.

With the change of government, there is a need to form a new committee. But the RTC workers are angry that the government is not thinking in that direction. There is a possibility to apply the scale as per PRC of government employees after the merger.

All the posts in the RTC starting from Shramik, Attendant, Driver, Conductor, Manager, Executive Director etc., will be converted into the equivalent posts in the government.

The pension scheme too has to be finalised based on the year of joining RTC by the staff.

Once the merger is completed, there will be a salary hike through the PRC every five years on par with the government employees.