With the ₹ 1,500 crore allocation for the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation, transport researchers, union workers and former employees are concerned whether procuring buses would be on the agenda.
The budgetary allocation for the TSRTC include ₹ 850 crore towards “assistance to TSRTC towards reimbursement of concessions extended to various categories of citizens”, and this primarily means concessional bus passes. Another ₹ 650 crore are loans.
Reacting to the budgetary allocations, former RTC Board Director M Nageswara Rao said that over ₹2,000 crore was allocated for the Hyderabad Metro Rail. TSRTC, he said, transports a much larger number of passengers, many of whom are from the weaker sections of society, and it was allocated only ₹ 1,500 crore. “The TSRTC connects thousands of villages and provides transport to around 30 lakh people every day. The paucity of funds is alarming,” he said.
The TSRTC’s trade unions, including the TSRTC Employees Union, Telangana Jathiya Mazdoor Union, and others, ahead of the budget session had met leaders of opposition parties and requested them to raise issues which the loss-making corporation has been facing. The unions had demanded that a minimum of 2% of the entire outlay be allocated to the TSRTC. However, their demand appears to have been ignored. Other demands included a pay revision.
Transport researcher G S R Chaitanya said, “More than loans, the TSRTC needs grants. How will the ₹ 650 crore used? Will they be used to buy buses? We will have to see. The TSRTC is dealing with an ageing fleet. The inter-state buses too are ageing. We will soon see workers retiring. Their benefits would have to be paid. There are other liabilities which too have to be dealt with.”
