With Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan approving the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (Absorption of Employees into Government Service) Bill 2023, 43,000 employees of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) will now be treated as part state government staff.
The Bill had been passed by the state legislative assembly on 4 August, following which certain recommendations were made. Now that the 10 recommendations have been satisfactorily addressed, the Governor has given her consent to the same on 14 September 2023.
Earlier, there were rumours that the Bill had been held back and that the approval of the President of India would be sought for the same. However, in truth, the Governor had sought certain clarifications on the same and had recommended 10 points for the overall welfare of the staff.
One of her recommendations was that the Corporation itself be the sole and exclusive owner of the assets, lands and properties of TSRTC even after its employees become government staff and part of RTC.
Protests were held in depots across Telangana even a month ago, against the Governor who had at the time sought a little more time to study the bill before lending her approval to the merger of TSRTC with the state government. Hundreds of TSRTC employees had marched to the Raj Bhavan as part of a few hours’ strike demanding that the Governor give her approval to the Bill.