CONGRESS SETS OCT. 19 DEADLINE TO SETTLE ISSUE

The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee has set October 19 — the day the RTC JAC has called for a statewide strike — as the deadline for Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to resolve the ongoing RTC staff strike. The RTC joint action committee (JAC) has called for a strike on the same day.

Congress activists would lay siege to Mr Rao’s official residence Pragathi Bhavan on October 21 if the RTC strike was not resolved, TPCC working president and MP A. Revanth Reddy, former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir and former deputy chief minister Damodar Rajanarasimha told mediapersons at a joint press conference on Tuesday.

Mr Revanth Reddy alleged that the provocative statements of Mr Rao and his ministers had driven many RTC employees to commit suicide. The government had failed to find a solution despite the strike entering its 11th day on Tuesday.

He said Mr Rao was more sympathetic to dogs at Pragathi Bhavan than the people. He said cases were filed on two veterinarians for the death of a dog but no action was taken after two RTC employees committed suicide following the ministers’ provocative statements.

Mr Revanth Reddy said ministers Errabelli Dayakar Rao and Talasani Srinivas Yadav should be booked under IPC Section 306 (abetment to suicide). He described the suicides as institutional murders.

Mr Shabbir Ali said TRS leaders were giving contradictory statements. He said that at the one side the CM was insisting that more than 48,000 RTC employees had been ‘self-dismissed’ while on the other side TRS ministers and party secretary-general K. Keshava Rao were appealing to RTC workers to call off the strike.