KCR Hints At Winding Up Loss-Making RTC Than Merging It With Govt

Hyderabad, Oct.24 (Maxim News): Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Thursday not only ruled out merger of the TSRTC with the government but also hinted that the time has come to wind up and privatize the RTC to ensure better transport service to the people at cheaper fares.

When the issue of the ongoing RTC strike was brought to his notice during his Press Meet at TRS Bhavan this evening, the Chief Minister dubbed the strike as illegal and even the Labour Department opined the same. “How can they go on strike when ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) was in force”, he quipped and added that it was cheap trade union politics being played by the leaders on the eve of union elections.

The Chief Minister explained how the RTC was running into losses and rendered the corporation penniless and pushing it into debts to the tune Rs 5,000 crores. “No one can save the RTC. It’s not just ending the strike but it’s time for its closure”, he observed. He also pointed out that while the buses hired by the RTC were making a profit of 75 paise per km, the RTC-owned buses were losing Rs 3 per km. Thus, the RTC was incurring a loss of Rs 1200 crores annually.

Asserting that he was well versed with the working of the RTC and that he had even worked as Transport Minister in the past, he said he had ensured RTC to be a profitable corporation in 1997-98. The employees are stakeholders of the corporation and it was their bounded duty to protect and strive to make it prosperous, he observed.

The Chief Minister explained that while previous governments released Rs 700 crore to the corporation, after the TRS came to power, as much as Rs 4,250 crore were being released. Besides, the GHMC was remitting Rs 330 crores annually for the losses in the city services, he said, adding that though an allocation of Rs 550 crore was made in this year’s budget, already an amount of Rs 425 crores was released, he pointed out.

Replying to a spate of questions, the Chief Minister pointed that the Centre had accorded permission to the State governments to ensure that proper and cheaper transport services to the people. For this, if necessary, the State governments can go in for private transport services, he said. “Even a Bill was enacted in this regard in Parliament. Therefore, the accusations of the RTC employees and the Opposition parties that the government was not resolving the RTC crew strike in order to go in for privatization of the corporation was only to mislead the people”, he quipped.

In this connection, KCR reminded that Digvijay Singh government in Madhya Pradesh had wound up the RTC in that State, while in Bihar only a few hundred buses were being operated by the RTC and the rest were private buses. “Moreover, show me any of the BJP or Congress-ruled States merged the RTC in the government?, he asked.

KCR also refuted the charge he had defied even the High Court’s directive to hold talks with the striking employees. He said that the employees should have abide by the court order to call off strike and come for talks. As a matter of fact all efforts were made to convince the employees in talks with senior officers to refrain from any hasty action during the festival season when the RTC could earn sufficient revenue. But the leaders played with the lives of innocent employees with their cheap union politics and even the Opposition parties threw their hat to mislead them, he quipped.

Referring to the assertion of the RTC union leaders that they would not budge an inch till the government conceded the demand of merging the RTC in the government, the Chief Minister made it amply clear that there was no question of merger as this was not only ridiculous but untenable. There 57 corporations in the state and if one corporation is merged it would lead to a chain reaction. Therefore it’s the end of story for RTC and the time has come for it to wind up, he said and added that based on the powers given by the centre he could press into service as many as 5000 to 7000 private buses to ensure better transport services to the people at affordable fares.

The Chief Minister further pointed out that as many as 2600 buses have become defunct and cannot be useful. In order to replace them with new buses, it was cost Rs.1000 crores but the RTC has no money.(Maxim News)