The Telangana High Court on Tuesday said that the unions of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), were also equally responsible for over 20 deaths of workers since the employees went on strike over 50 days ago.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy, made the observation on Tuesday, while hearing a petition on more than 20 RTC employees either taking their own life, or dying due to a heart attack /stroke. The Public Interest Litigation (PIL), filed by Professor P L Vishweshwar Rao, said that the state government was to blame for the deaths.
In response, the court observed that the strike was called by the union leaders and not the state government. It also said that the union leaders should have approached an advocate for legal advice and approached the right forum to resolve the issue under the Industrial Disputes Act.
This development took place even as hundreds of employees of the TSRTC were detained across the state on Tuesday to prevent them from joining duties after the 52-day long strike. The employees were told by the depot managers that they have not received instructions from the government for taking them back. They resorted to protests and raised slogans of ‘CM down down' and we want justice'. Police took them into custody.
Meanwhile, the court also pointed out that the RTC employees cannot be considered as 'dismissed'. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has dubbed the ongoing strike illegal, and has said that employees who did not resume duties earlier, were 'self-dismissed'.
The court opined that the striking workers could still seek access to their Provident Fund (PF) accounts and could demand the rightful share of their hard-earned savings.
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of employee unions had on Monday announced that they were calling off their strike and asked the employees to resume work from Tuesday. However, the management of the state-owned transport body refused to take back the employees until the Labour Commissioner takes a decision on their strike as directed by the Telangana High Court.
KCR takes stock
Meanwhile, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao held a review meeting with Transport Minister P. Ajay and senior officials to review the situation in the wake of latest developments. They are understood to have discussed the issues that will come up in the state cabinet meeting scheduled on Thursday.
According to the Chief Minister's Office, the cabinet meeting will begin at 2 pm on Thursday and there is a possibility of it being extended to Friday. It said that the meeting will discuss at length the measures to be taken to end the RTC impasse.
Congress approaches Centre
In a related development, Congress MPs from Telangana on Tuesday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in the RTC issue. The MPs led by Uttam Kumar Reddy, who is also the party's state president, met Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi and handed him a representation to the Prime Minister.
They alleged that the adamant attitude of the state government has caused distress among thousands of RTC employees.
Nearly 48,000 employees were on strike since October 5 to press for various demands including the demand to merge TSRTC, an autonomous body, with the government, which would give the employees the same benefits as those employed with the state government.
This is the longest strike in the history of the RTC in the Telugu states. TSRTC has not paid salaries to the employees for September and October, causing distress to thousands of employees.
In a move further angering the employees, the government announced privatisation of 5,100 TSRTC routes. The High Court last week dismissed a petition challenging the government's decision.
IANS inputs