WASHINGTON: Senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader B Vinod Kumar faced a protest from Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) at an event in Washington, over the government’s response to the ongoing strike by the TSRTC employees.
NRIs for RTC
The video of the incident widely shared on social media showed several NRIs protesting in the crowd, standing up with placards of ‘NRIs for RTC’ and ‘Save RTC’ questioned Mr. Kumar, the State Planning Commission vice-chairman.
The former Karimnagar MP was addressing an event hosted by the Telangana Development Forum (TDF) earlier this week.
Slogans were also raised as Vinod tried to pacify the agitators saying, “We will save RTC…okay…please sit down.”
Congress MP from Malkajgiri, Revanth Reddy, who has been protesting against the state government over their response to the RTC strike, was also sharing the stage with Vinod.
Watch the video below.
NRIs from London extend support
Meanwhile, the NRIs based in London also held an all-party meeting in support of RTC workers.
Fans of Congress, BJP, YSRCP, Telangana Janasamity, TDP and Jana Sena delivered their message via unique video conference.
Strike entered 38th day
The strike by over 48,000 TSRTC employees entered the 38th day on Monday. Their demands include merger of TSRTC with the government, so that they are treated at par with other state government employees. However, taking a tough stand, the TRS government has rejected the demand for merger and even announced privatisation of half of the TSRTC routes.
The state Cabinet had on November 2 decided to privatise 5,100 bus routes, further angering the employees, who are on strike since October 5.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has rejected the demand for merger saying it will open the floodgates for similar demands by employees of other corporations.
Though the Telangana High Court has directed the state government to take the initiative to resolve the employees’ demands, no end to the stalemate appears in sight as both sides are sticking to their stand.