HYDERABAD: In the face of vehement protests by Telangana groups and striking staff, the APSRTC management beat a hasty retreat Wednesday from its move to sack 1,350 contract drivers and conductors.
It was a bad day for the transport utility. Striking staff and Telangana activists disrupted the management's effort to recruit ad hoc drivers to run its services across Telangana, and pounced upon the death of an auto driver in an accident involving a novice driver to browbeat the management.Hemmed in by the protests and public discontent over disrupted services, the APSRTC called in the union leaders, and agreed to treat the termination orders served on absent staff as showcause notices and continue to keep them on the rolls. But the staff said they would continue the strike nevertheless.
Across Telangana on Wednesday, RTC staff successfully thwarted the management's bid to recruit temp staff. Candidates who turned up for interviewsa were made to flee. Transport minister Botcha Satyanarayana contributed to the merriment by saying he had not been informed that the APSRTC management had sacked 1,350 contract staff and learnt of it from the newspapers in the morning.TRS leaders were busy all day, participating in a highoctane protest APSRTC's Bus Bhavan in Hyderabad over the sackings and the death allegedly caused by a novice driver, and managing to get themselves arrested.Just ahead of the rail roko, Auto Drivers will begin a 48hour strike on Sept. 23 and 24. Adding to the government's woes, the Telangana Government Doctors Joint Action Committee has said its members will abstain from duties starting Thursday. Emergency services will be exempt but if the government hit them with ESMA action, even those would be disrupted.
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