Telangana sacks 48,000 striking transport staff

Telangana has sacked more than 48,000 employees of the state’s bus department over an indefinite strike, officials and news reports said yesterday.
The striking workers of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation had refused to end their two-day protest by the government deadline on Saturday, after which authorities announced the decision late Sunday night.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao ruled out any negotiations with the striking workers – mainly bus drivers and conductors – to reinstate them and had made fresh recruitments.
“It is an unpardonable crime that they went on a strike during the festive season and at a time when the road corporation is incurring huge losses and an increasing debt burden,” Rao said, NDTV news channel reported.
In recent days, millions of people are returning home to visit relatives and celebrate the festival of Dussehra, which falls today.
Senior state official K Ramakrishna Rao confirmed that authorities had taken action by invoking provisions of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), which rendered the strike illegal.
“Under ESMA provisions, if the conduct of employees is illegal, they are liable for dismissal from service,” he said.
Around 50,000 workers had gone on strike on Friday with 26 demands, including releasing dues and a merger of the corporation with the government.
Over 1,200 had not joined the strike.
The transport department had already recruited 5,400 drivers and bus conductors for its 10,400 buses, 60% of which were operational yesterday, according to transport officials.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions described it as an “authoritarian” move to suppress the strike and demanded the immediate reinstatement of the dismissed employees.
Legal experts were divided over the controversial move, saying it was not tenable in court.
Government officials maintain that under Indian law, essential services include public transport, power and water supplies, and the sackings were valid.
Meanwhile, tension prevailed at Telangana Martyrs’ Memorial at Gun Park near the state assembly when leaders of TSRTC employee unions reached there to pay their homage.