2 RTC drivers die of heart attack

Stress associated with the ongoing RTC workers’ strike claimed the lives of two more drivers, whose worry over their jobs gave each a heart attack on Tuesday night. This brings the total lives lost since the strike began to eight.

RTC workers have struck demanding a merger of the corporation into the state government, among other demands. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s statement that striking employees were “self-dismissed” workers caused stress and agony to the staff, leading to suicides and heart attacks.

S. Ramesh Goud, 40, of Mall village in Yacharam, was a driver at Musheerabad bus depot -1 . He was a staffer for the past 10 years and leaves behind his parents, wife and his sixmonth old daughter.

On Monday night, he complained of chest pain and was admitted to a nearby hospital but later shifted to another hospital in the city. Yacharam inspector M Madhu Kumar said Goud’s death was the result of a heart stroke. His final rites were held on Wednesday.

The other RTC driver, Dudekula Gafuruddin, 35, of Golilingala village in Nagireddypet mandal of Kamareddy district, also died of a heart stroke. He was a driver at Nizamabad depot - 2.

Family members said he was incapacitated while watching television news at home. They called an ambulance and were transporting him when he died en route, near Toopran. He is survived by his wife and sixmonth-old daughter.

He was the family’s sole breadwinner and during the strike shared his financial problems with his friends. RTC union leaders rushed to the Golilingala village on Wednesday and conducted the last rites for him.