PIL filed against route privatisation

Hyderabad: Challenging the Telangana Cabinet decision for privatising the 5,100 permits of the RTC, a PIL has been filed before the Telangana High court seeking a stay on the decision.

Professor P.L. Vishweshwar Rao, convenor, Telangana Democratic Forum and vice president of Telangana Janasamithi filed the petition, alleging that the state cabinet has taken the decision in a hurry without following the stipulated law.

Instead of continuing negotiations with RTC trade unions, resolving the problems and getting them to call off the strike and join duty, they are rushing to privatise.

Tracing  the history of  the Road Transport Corporation from 1950 to the present,  where  around 50,000 workers are employed to provide transport  facilities to  commuters in Telangana with around 10,000 buses, the petitioner states that the cabinet has taken the decision in a whimsical manner.

He submitted that only the RTC board only has the power to make any administrable decisions under Section 45 of the RTC Act, 1950. The section  vests the power to make regulations with the corporation, with previous  sanction of the state government. However, the Cabinet  on November 2 took the decision to privatise 50 per cent of the  routes of the corporation, violating the RTC Act and Motor Vehicles Act 1988.

Prof Rao brought to the notice of the court that the Provident Fund contribution of the RTC employees amounting to Rs 900 crores and employees co-operative amount of Rs 326 crores were being diverted.

The court tagged the PIL with the other PILs related to  the RTC strike, when on Wednesday Chikkudu Prabhakar, the counsel representing the petitioner urged the court to hear this petition urgently.