Keep faith in Jagan, Perni tells RTC staff

Minister presents road safety and fuel-efficiency awards

Despite severe financial constraints, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had kept his promise of merging the cash-strapped AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) with the State government, said Transport Minister Perni Venkataramaiah, on Friday.

Speaking at the Road Safety Awards’ presentation to the best drivers, mechanics and supervisors of the APSRTC for the year 2018-19, organised by the public transport carrier, Mr. Venkataramaiah said Chief Minister of Telangana K. Chandrasekhar Rao had shot down a similar request made by the RTC workers in that State.

The Minister said the RTC employees had brought to his notice certain issues which had been taken to the notice of the Chief Minister. The workers could expect positive news any time soon. The Minister said he had known the problems of RTC employees very well as his father Krishnamurthy was the founding president of the National Mazdoor Union. He said managing a vast workforce of 51,686 employees and their families was a formidable task.

The Minister told the employees not to worry since the government was wedded to the cause of the RTC workers’ welfare. He cautioned them against getting carried away by false propaganda. He said the workers’ request for reinstatement of the employees who were asked to discontinue their job for health reasons in the past 4-5 years, was being reviewed. Efforts were also on to relax certain rules to make the workers’ lives easy, he said.

Grievance day

He said there was a proposal to hold a monthly grievance day in Vijayawada to be attended by the Executive Directors and Regional Managers of the 13 districts. The dates of the programme would be made known to officials after finalising them.

Earlier, the Minister felicitated Mehbub Bhasha and M.V. Subbaiah from Atmakur depot and Y. Krishnaiah from Nellore, the recipients of the first, second and third prizes respectively, at the State level in Road Safety category.

In fuel-efficiency section, drivers Ramana from Kakinada depot, M.S. Reddy from Mangalam depot and M. Krishnamurthy were given the awards.

IOCL Chief General Manager B. Ranjan Pradhan and General Manager Suresh Babu, APSRTC Executive Director (Administration) A. Koteswara Rao, ED (Operations) K.S. Brahmananda Reddy, ED (Engineering) P. Krishna Mohan, Vijayawada Regional Manager Nagendra Prasad, Chief Traffic Manager Chitti Babu and others were present.