GUNTUR: The State Government will not retrench even a single employee from Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) till the Congress Government is in power, Minister for Transport and Cooperation Kanna Lakshmi Narayana has said.

Reacting to Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary B.V. Raghavalu's statement on G.O. No.5 with regard to Public Enterprise reforms and likely retrenchment of 34,784 employees of the RTC, he said at a press conference here on Monday that the RTC was making profits and it would not be privatised.

Referring to the G.O. No.5, which clearly stated that it would extend the term of Implementation Secretariat by three years up to March 2009, the Minister sought to explain that it was extension of the term of Public Enterprise Monitoring Board (PEMB) and that it was only an advisory body.

"The CPI(M) leader should have got everything clarified with me before going public on the G.O.," he said. "We have purchased 2,000 new buses, if we retrench employees, who will drive them?" he asked. The Government had brought back life into RTC, Electricity Board, Singareni Collieries, and even decided to give Rs. 58 guarantee to Cooperative Sugar factories, he said.

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