Assembly passes RTC Bill, raj bhavan makes 10 recommendations
K Venkateshwarlu
n hyderabad
The Assembly passed the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (Absorption of Employees into Government Service) Bill–2023 on Sunday.
Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar introduced the Bill in the Assembly and made it clear that the RTC’s assets will remain as they are and that the government will clear the pending bills of RTC workers. The government will also provide PRC which is applicable to government employees.
TSRTC Chairman Nizamabad MLA Bajireddy Goverdhan said that they had worked hard to save the RTC from losses.
Speaking on the RTC Bill, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said that Governor Dr Tamilisai Sounderarajan had delayed the Bill as she was not fully aware of the facts. The RTC was set up for public transport but it ran up huge losses, KCR said.“I have been Transport Minister too. During those days, the RTC suffered a loss of Rs 14 crore. We cleared the loss and raised Rs 14 crore through other sources,” KCR said. However, the rise in diesel prices became a huge burden for the RTC. The RTC consumes six lakh litres of diesel per day. We discussed the RTC issue in the Cabinet for five hours and in the end we decided to absorb RTC workers into government service,” KCR said.
He said that the government will bear responsibility for whatever it did. “We will set right the RTC by appointing IAS officers to manage it. Some are criticizing us saying that we are eyeing the RTC’s assets. It is totally false. We will develop the RTC. We will modernize RTC bus stations. We will acquire some land for the RTC if needed. We will give PRC to RTC employees. RTC employees are also happy as they will get job security,” KCR said.
He said that the Governor asked for clarifications on 96 points unnecessarily. She gave the green signal to the RTC Bill in the end after knowing the facts. “I thank the Governor on behalf of the RTC workers,” KCR said.
Later, the Speaker adjourned the Assembly sine die, after the Assembly passed the RTC Bill.
