Transport Minister Pinipe Viswaroop on Tuesday said the diesel cess was imposed under ‘inevitable circumstances’ arising out of a steep hike in fuel prices.
Addressing officials of the Transport Department during his maiden visit to RTC House after assuming charge as the Transport Minister, Mr. Viswaroop said the Opposition parties were blowing the issue out of proportion and asserted that the surcharge being collected in the State was less than neighbouring Telangana State. He, however, thanked the people for understanding the problem of the cash-strapped AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) and extending their cooperation.
Sticking to his promise made at the time of his padayatra, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had ushered in happiness in the lives of 50,000 APSRTC employees’ families by merging the Corporation with the State government. Despite a serious financial crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic times, the State government did not delay or stop the salaries of the RTC employees, he pointed out.
The Minister said the officials should improve the Occupancy Ratio from the existing 73% to 78%.
Vice Chancellor and Managing Director Ch. Dwaraka Tirumala Rao introduced officials to the Minister. He expressed happiness that the first file signed by the Minister was the one pertaining to the acquisition of 998 hired buses in the APSRTC.
Mr. Tirumala Rao informed the Minister said the APSRTC had started buying diesel from the retail outlets as the oil manufacturing companies had increased rates for bulk buyers. He said that to tide over the financial crisis, efforts were being made to further improve revenue through cargo services.
Referring to the issue of providing jobs to the kin of the deceased RTC employees on compassionate grounds, he said the Chief Minister had instructed that priority should be given to the kin of employees who succumbed to COVID-19. He said the job applications of the kin of 896 employees who died between January 1 in 2016 and December 31 of 2019 were pending.
He said due to non-completion of cadre equalisation, there was a delay in implementation of the Pay Revision Commission recommendations for the APSRTC employees.
Responding to Mr. Tirumala Rao’s plea that the Corporation be allocated ₹200 crore annually for purchase of new buses, the Minister said he would take it to the notice of the Chief Minister.
The Corporation’s Executive Director (Administration) A. Koteswara Rao and others were present.
