TS wants AP to cut down a slew of services in state; APSRTC resists as it will hit its finances and passengers TS, AP talks on revising RTC services hit speed bump AP pushes back 54 Assembly staff
The inter-state agreement on sharing of routes by the RTCs of the two states continues to be a problem. A high-level meeting of the two transport ministers, higher officials of the department, and RTC officials of both states to resolve bifurcation issues concluded without a solution on Wednesday.
It was decided to hold executive director level talks later to find a way out of the logjam.
The ministerial level talks were held for the first time nearly three years after bifurcation. Telangana transport minister Mahender Reddy took the lead and called his counterpart K. Atchennaidu, who responded by inviting Mr Reddy to Vijayawada.
The meeting focused on five major issues that have remained a problem for both states. After the formation of Telangana state, the TSRTC has not been able to ply its buses on par with APSRTC.
APSRTC used to ply its buses in TS on 3.37 lakh kilometres before TSRTC was formed. This has now come down to 2.3 lakh kilometres. The TSRTC plies on 1.2 lakh kilometres in Andhra Pradesh. To make the distance covered by the bus companies equal, the APSRTC has to reduce its services in TS, which would adversely affect its prospects.
The AP corporation is opposed to withdrawing its services at once as 84 per cent of its long distance services are to Hyderabad. The APSRTC is resisting the move both due to its financial inconvenience and problems to passengers.
APSRTC managing director M. Malakondaiah said that the decision to withdraw the services from AP should not be sudden as the services to Hyderabad from AP were based on passenger demand.
He wanted the withdrawal of services to take place over a period of time as Hyderabad still serves as the common capital for both the states.
He said modalities must be worked out between the two states so as to accommodate TSRTC services in Andhra Pradesh with this having a minimum effect on APSRTC. The AP government on Wednesday issued orders relieving 54 TS-origin Assembly employees to the TS Assembly. The order ran contrary to a decision taken during the advisory committee meeting held on April 29 on division of Assembly employees that was attended by officials of both the governments.
The remaining staff will be relieved in the next phase, according to officials.
The officials had decided to “share” the vacant posts along with existing employees between the two states. However, AP officials later refused to sign the agreement saying that raised some objections.
The AP officials told their TS counterparts that only employees who have no objection to being relieved would be let go.
As per the TS officials, 79 Telangana-native employees are working in the AP Assembly. On Wednesday AP government relieved 54 in the first phase while the remaining would be relieved in the next phase.
TS Assembly secretary Raja Sadaram said that they have no objection in accommodating the 54 employees. “Problems will crop up if the same category employees are relieved by AP,” he said.
The TS Assembly has only one joint secretary’s post and it is not vacant. If the AP government relieves a joint secretary, TS will face problems accommodating the official.
If such a situation does crop up, TS will have no option but to sanction supernumerary posts to accommodate such employees. Dr Sadaram said that if both the governments shared vacant posts, such problems will not crop up.