Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati   

RTC union leader reminds YSR of poll promises

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI, SEPT. 7. The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, drew flak from the secretary general of the APSRTC Employees Union, Raja Ramamohana Rao, for what he called his `backtracking' on the promises he had made to the union in the run-up to the Assembly election.

Addressing the third anniversary of the Chittoor district unit of the union, the union leader reminded Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy in this connection on the "outright support" he had extended to the union as the leader of the Opposition when it was on its historic 24-day-long state-wide strike in 2001 in pursuance of its charter of demands. Dr. Reddy, after becoming the Chief Minister is not giving any firm commitment on the demands, he said and warned that the union would not hesitate to launch an agitation to get all its pending demands met. He was particularly critical on the delay in the constitution of a tripartite committee for the resuscitation of the APSRTC.

APTDC move questioned

Mr Rao also recalled how as the then CLP leader, Dr Rajasekhara Reddy, also extended his support to the union's fight against the TDP Government against its failure to reduce the MV tax for the RTC fleet and in reining in the private fleet operators and wondered why he was not taking any concrete steps in the direction.

The union leader also questioned the propriety of the Government in allowing the AP Tourism Development Corporation to open booking counters and operate `parallel services' to the RTC buses in the name of tourism promotion. It is causing a serious dent on the RTC revenue, he alleged and regretted that the attitude of those at the helm of affairs of the RTC was not changing though the Government had changed.

Charter of demands

The deputy secretary general of the union, Raghava Reddy, said that there was no question of the RTC running in profits so long as the diesel rates were allowed to be hiked indiscriminately. Among the other participants were the Tirupati Congress MLA, M. Venkatramana, secretary of the district CPI unit, Harinadha Reddy, and others.

The union's demands as listed by Mr Rao included slashing of MV tax so that it is on a par with the one levied on private buses, ban on plying of unauthorised buses, reimbursement of concessions and so on.

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