RTC stir: Driver ends life, blames Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for ignoring employees

HYDERABAD: Yet another Telangana state road transport corporation employee committed suicide on Wednesday. The victim, Avula Naresh, 51 is the fifth person to kill himself after blaming the government. Naresh was a resident of Mahabubabad, which is a five-hour drive from state capital, Hyderabad.
Naresh, who consumed pesticide, died on his way to the hospital. In his suicide note, the worker blamed chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for his death as the CM has been ignoring pleas of RTC workers.
He requested that the CM meet the demands of RTC employees.
He wrote that his family had to go hungry, in addition to being deprived of celebrating festivals, due to the on-going strike and not receiving his salary.
Naresh also mentioned that the employees had approached local TRS MLA Shankar Naik. “Naik had made uncharitable remarks against TSRTC JAC leader Ashwathama Reddy, who is fighting for a cause,” Naresh said.
Ashwathama, who paid respects to the body of Naresh, urged RTC workers not to take any hasty action.
The death of the driver led to protests in Mahabubabad town as RTC employees and various political parties resorted to protests.
RTC employees in large numbers broke a heavy security cordon and rushed to the RTC bus depot in protest. They were stopped by the police, who also placed wire fencing at the gate .
In Warangal, several RTC workers were taken into preventive custody as they were preparing to go to Mahabubabad to join the protest.
RTC unions say that so far 29 employees died due to heart attacks and five persons have committed suicide as the government had considered them as being dismissed from service.
KCR, however, squarely blamed the unions for the suicides describing them as murders committed by the unions.