Hyderabad, May 6: RTC employees union in both AP and Telangana are on strike demanding 43 per cent fitment on a par with government employees for which all buses will go off roads from Wednesday.

Bus stops are completely filled with people and no bus is running in the city today. It is reported that Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state RTC employees’ union are going for a strike on demand of 43 per cent fitment on a par with government employees. From Wednesday, the employees will not be working until their demand is fulfilled.

In this regards, APSRTC under a contingency plan is thinking to have private drivers for running the buses in order to avoid inconvenience to the people in the city. For 27% of salary hike, the employees union didn’t accept to work, instead they are demanding for 43%. The corporation previously granted to give 27% by passing burden to the people who are travelling.

In April only both APSRTC Employees’ Union and the RTC Telangana Mazdoor Union gave a signal for strike and on demand, government accepted for 27% hike. “We assured them that their problems will be solved by forming a sub-committee. People will be burdened if 43 per cent fitment is granted. The corporation incurs a loss of one crore a day. I request them to call off the strike,” said Reddy.

There was a meeting yesterday between Andhra Pradesh cabinet sub-committee and the union leaders, but it is failed. IT is decided long back that APSRTC and TSRTC are set to function as two separate entities in the two States from May 14.

As it is loss to the corporation, AP Transport Minister Sidda Raghava Rao, and Telangana counterpart P Mahender Reddy appealed to the unions to withdraw the strike in this regards. It is also said that around Rs. 550 crore loss is faced by RTC in 2014-15.