APSRTC on road to bifurcation

VISAKHAPATNAM | HYDERABAD: A year ago, around this time, around 70,000 Seemandhra employees of the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) had taken to the roads to fight for a united Andhra Pradesh. But today, the same employees are expressing discontent over the assets of APSRTC remaining undivided between AP and Telangana. According to Hyderabad-based GV Reddy, general secretary, APSRTC National Mazdoor Union (NMU), almost 1.24 lakh staff members of RTC have come up with the demand to bifurcate APSRTC due to the lackadaisical attitude of both the governments in addressing several issues pertaining to its services, properties and employees. "The governments are busy playing games. In united AP, the then state government allocated Rs 500 crore for APSRTC. But now, the AP government has allocated only Rs 26 crore in the recent budget and the Telangana government is yet to announce its budget allocations for the transport corporation. This step-motherly attitude of the two state governments has forced us to demand a division of APSRTC," said Reddy. Meanwhile, Y Srinivasa Rao, NMU secretary for Visakhapatnam region, said the Centre first put the APSRTC in the list of organisations that come under Schedule 10 as per the AP Reorganisation Act 2014. As per Schedule 10, public undertakings have to continue providing services to the people of the two states without any bias for five years from June 2, 2014. However, upon requests and pressure from union leaders, RTC was then put in Schedule 9 list of the Act, which stipulates that public sector undertakings be divided within a year."Schedule 9 category organisations like Transco, Genco, police, housing, Road Transport Authority have already been divided and have separate heads. APSRTC too should be divided on similar lines without losing any more time. Our union leaders have met almost all higher-ups, including AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu," said Srinivasa Rao. Currently, APSRTC earns Rs 19-21 crore daily by running 23,700 buses across the two states, including 11,557 in Andhra Pradesh state alone, to transport nearly 1.25 to 1.27 crore passengers. If the RTC is divided into two separate corporations, the assets and revenue should be divided in the ratio of 58:42 between AP and Telangana, said a leader from the APSRTC Employees Union.