Telangana forms panel to look into TSRTC employees' demands

 The Telangana state cabinet late on Tuesday decided to constitute a three-member committee of IAS officials to consider the demands of the employees of the state-owned Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC).

The cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao appealed to TSRTC employees to drop their plans to go on strike from October 5 to prevent further losses to the public transport body and also to avoid inconvenience to the travelling public during the festival season.

The decision was taken two days after TSRTC employees decided to go on strike to press for their demands, including merger of TSRTC with the government, and pay revision.

The meeting, which began at 4 p.m. and continued till late in the night, constituted a three-member panel headed by special Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar. Principal Secretaries Ramakrishna Rao and Sunil Sharma will be members of the committee, said a statement from the Chief Minister's Office released around midnight.

"This committee is expected to discuss with TSRTC employees and after thoroughly examining the demands, it will submit a report as early as possible to the government. The government will initiate action based on the report accordingly," it said.

The cabinet decided to save TSRTC under any circumstances as it is providing transport facility to the poor. The meeting discussed a strategy for this purpose.

The cabinet appealed to the employees to withdraw the idea of going on strike in view of the corporation already running in losses. It suggested them to discuss their issues with the committee.

The cabinet has also decided to constitute eight permanent cabinet sub-committees to advise the government from time to time and also to monitor the programmes being implemented by different departments.IANS