People's Democracy

FACED with the prospect of the 17 day long RTC workers strike assuming the proportions of the historic power agitation, a cornered chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu finally called the striking unions for discussions on Oct.30th. After three rounds of discussions with a cabinet sub committee, in which the state transport minister was kept out by a dissatisfied CM, the stalemate continued. The government made no significant new proposals and the Joint Action Committee leaders stuck to their demands. At the time of writing this the workers, with full support from various quarters especially the Left parties, have intensified their strike.

Despite undergoing severe inconvenience due to the strike the people of the state have sympathised with the workers demands. The general perception is that the workers struggle is for safegaurding of this prestigious corporation. They have refused to be misled by the mischievous propaganda unleashed by the government against the workers demands.

This factor has led to a situation where the ruling Telugu Desam Party leaders had to mount pressure on the chief minister to immediately resolve the strike through negotiations.

The indefinite strike by the public sector road transport corporation APSRTC workers assumed a new dimension as common people led by the nine Left parties have started physically obstructing the plying of private buses through out the state.

On October 29 under the call of the nine Left parties picketings were held in the entire state demanding the government to resolve the strike. The state police resorted to brutal lathicharge in many places, demolished the solidarity hunger strike camps and booked cases against the protestors under non bailable sections. The extent of police barbarism was captured in a photograph published in Vaartha telugu daily. It showed an Assistant Commissioner of Police pushing a lathi into the mouth of a sloganeering woman in Vijayawada. The CPI(M) state secretary B V Raghavulu has sent a complaint to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) against this police officer along with a copy of the photograph.

Rasta rokos were held in many places including Hyderabad in which the state leaders of the Left parties took part. Support to the strike from various mass organisations is growing by the day.

In a parallel to the way it dealt with the struggle against power tariff hike, the Chandrababu Naidu government is unleashing the police on the striking workers and those expressing solidarity with them.

Unable to digest the unprecedented unity of the workers and in order to break the strike it has gone on an arresting spree. By October 27th evening the government had arrested 4338 workers. Of them, 1026 persons were arrested under ESMA and other other non bailable sections. Another 500 people belonging to different mass organisations were arrested for extending solidarity to the workers.
The RTC management has dismissed so far 300 workers and suspended another 300 workers.

However the workers are not cowed down by this repression and are continuing their strike with dharnas, picketings, demonstrations, rasta rokos etc. They are receiving total support from central trade unions, independent federations and opposition political parties, particularly the Left parties.

A statewide convention of trade unions held in Hyderabad on October 28 gave a call for a statewide general strike on November 6. The convention has also passed a resolution to obstruct the plying of private buses using casual workers. This has begun from October 29. Left parties too have announced similar action programmes.

Encouraged by the overwhelming support from the trade unions and opposition political parties including Congress, the JAC has decided to intensify the struggle. Already family members of the workers are joining in the struggle across the state.

The Andhra Pradesh government which has entered into a structural adjustment programme with the World Bank, has committed itself to privatise the public sector corporations in the state including APSRTC.

The game-plan adopted for achieving this is both simple and proven formula - bleed the company, say its become unviable and then sell it off cheaply to private persons. That the governments efforts have borne fruit to a large extent is clear from these facts.

At the time of Chandrababu Naidu's assuming power in 1995 the APSRTC had posted a profit of Rs 127 crores. Today its losses are nearly Rs 200 crores. This was achieved by a variety of measures unleashed by the government. Primary among this was the imposition of a stiff 15 per cent Motor Vehicle tax, increasing it from 8 per cent, in a span of four years. In rupee terms on every bus it owned the APSRTC used to pay the government Rs 81,000 in 1994. Today it is shelling out Rs.1,80,000 rupees as M.V. tax every year on each bus. Contrast this with the effective rate of 9 per cent for the private services and the game-plan becomes obvious.

Another route is by way of continuos refusal to reimburse the corporation for the concessions given to the different segments of the society like students, journalists, MLA's etc. Moreover the government regularly used these buses for ferrying people for its publicity oriented programmes. All these concessions amount to a whopping Rs 234 crores an year, which RTC is forced to bear on its own.

Another important way of killing the RTC is the deliberate inaction by the government to stop the illicit operations of private buses which are making it loose income to a tune of Rs 400 crores every year.

While in 1994-95 the passengers carried by the RTC was 76 percent of its capicity today it has fallen to 65 percent. The government is not allowing the RTC to procure new buses and augment its fleet to meet the increasing demand.

All these have combined to make this renowned, best run corporation with numerous national awards in regard to fuel consumption, least accident rate etc suffer forced losses of over Rs 200 crores.

It is this game-plan of the government which is being fought by the RTC workers through the ongoing strike. A joint action committee comprising the three major federations in the RTC , including the CITU affiliated Staff and Workers Federation (SWF) has been formed to lead this agitation. Accordingly an indefinite strike was declared by the 1,25,000 workers in RTC from October 15 demanding halt to the anti- state transport policies of the government, for better service conditions and wage revision.

This agitation comes in the wake of failure of various efforts by the workers to make the government see reason. They had given the strike notice six months ago. While not bothering about these demands, the government has imposed new work norms through which the service conditions of the workforce deteriorated further. The workload has been increased by way of reducing the bus-worker ratio. The corporation and the government refused to revise the wages of workers due to them since April, 2001.

All this stirred the workers into resolute action which is showing up during this longest ever strike in the APSRTC. This strike is yet another blow to the World Bank and its surrogate - Chandrababu Naidu, after the electricity shock delivered by the people of Andhra Pradesh.