The ongoing TSRTC strike of employees is the longest strike in RTC history of two Telugu states as the strike has commenced on October 5 and is continuing until today. Moreover, RTC requires Rs 224 crore to pay the salaries to nearly 498k employees. But, it has only 7.5 crores and is short of money.

With this situation, the families of RTC employees are facing financial crisis. And children of such families are also unable to clear their due fees at schools. In order to bring a solution, the government school teachers have decided to volunteer in paying the SSC exam fee of students whose parents are TSRTC employees. As the SSC students' exam fee last date is on November 7, United Teachers Federation leader Raghunandan announced to help students by calling teachers across the state.

Raghunandan said that he works for a school in Pochampally and he saw nearly 25 SSC students, who belong to families of RTC workers, unable to pay their dues. And the total fees to be paid by these students are around Rs 3,750 in total. He announced that the teachers of his school will pay the fee on the students' behalf. On the other hand, RTC employee-parent said that they are under a lot of stress and uncertainty as they did not receive salaries. In fact, employees failed to receive a salary even for the month that they have worked.

'All we want is to end this RTC issue as soon as possible and hope they meet our demands. Our financial and emotional struggle has become too overwhelming for us to bear,' the employee remarked. Also, many people are coming forward in solidarity with RTC employees like Sheelam Shankar, a former deputy engineer of the Karimnagar Municipal Corporation. Shankar posted a Facebook status that he would not charge any rent from his tenant, who is an RTC employee, till the strike is resolved.

SOURCE : GULTE