Hyderabad: In the wake of the row over the action of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation to remove a driver of a hired private bus for allegedly criticising leaders of the ruling Congress holding a protest, state Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar said on Tuesday that he has advised the management to change its decision and let him continue.
Prabhakar stated that driver Ashok spoke on behalf of the farmers, and the government welcomes it.
The minister said that despite the Centre showing negligence in the procurement of food grains, the state government was taking all measures to ensure that procurements happen smoothly. He advised opposition parties not to politicise this issue.
The Transport Minister clarified that Ashok is not an employee of RTC. “He is merely an RTC hired bus driver.. He is not an RTC employee. Even so, we have advised the bus management not to remove him from his job. Ashok spoke on behalf of the farmers, and we welcome that,” he said in a statement.
Earlier, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders Gangula Kamalakar and Jeevan Reddy met Karimnagar RTC Regional Manager, seeking the immediate reinstatement of Ashok.
The Regional Manager told the BRS leaders that he has no information. The leaders demanded action against the Jagtial Depot Manager for issuing the orders to dismiss the driver.
The driver, while driving the bus from Jagtial to Dharmapuri on Monday, had made certain remarks criticising the Congress leaders participating in a protest on the road at Jagtial over the hike in petrol and diesel prices.
He had reportedly advised the protestors to focus on procuring the produce from farmers. State minister Adluri Laxman and Congress MLAs were participating in the protest.
The Jagtial Depot Manager had then written to the owner of the private hire bus (PHB) to withdraw the driver from PHB services with immediate effect.
The letter by Jagtial Depot manager to PHB owner Chukka Venugopal stated that Congress’s Dharmapuri Mandal President C. Laxman had complained that the PHB driver criticised the Congress party leaders who were staging a dharna at the RDO office, Jagtial
On the other hand, driver Ashok, while talking to local media persons, clarified that he was speaking with a person from his village who was participating in the dharna. He said he told him that instead of talking about diesel or petrol, he should first focus on procuring cotton and maize from farmers.
He denied criticising any political party or leader and said he only spoke about the farmers.
The opposition parties had criticised the government for removing the driver from service. They said it was reprehensible that the government decided to dismiss Ashok from his job for saying that the government should immediately purchase the maize and cotton stuck in warehouses.
They demanded that Ashok be immediately reinstated in his job. This authoritarian rule, which dismisses people from their jobs for asking questions, must end, they added.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and former minister T. Harish Rao condemned the action against the driver.
Telangana Rakshana Samithi (TRS) leader K. Kavitha said that the Congress, which used to deliver grand lectures on democracy when it was in the opposition, is now undermining democracy after coming to power. She said the Jagityal Depot RTC driver, who suggested to the minister and Congress MLAs to buy the grains painstakingly harvested by farmers, has been removed from his duties.
(IANS)
