With the Telangana High Court directing the Telangana Government to facilitate talks between the striking Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) employees and the management, the K Chandrashekar Rao Government has decided to look into their demands, barring the one that called for the merger with the Government.

A six-member committee has been set up to study the demands and a report will be submitted within three days. RTC Executive Director T Venkateshwara Rao will be the Chairman of panel.

The High Court, while hearing the petitions with regard to the strike last week, had given interim orders asking the government to initiate talks. After receiving the orders, the Telangana Chief Minister held discussions with the officials on Tuesday evening to discuss the issue.

With the striking employees hinting it at go slow on the main demand of merger of the Corporation with the Government, the Chief Minister reportedly softened his hard stand on holding talks and decided to consider the demands.

The court, while hearing the petitions, had felt that some of the demands of the employees were fair and could be considered.

The 50,000-employee strong Joint Action Committee (JAC) of TSRTC Unions has begun the strike on October 5, demanding the merger of the corporation with the Government, revision of pay scales, reduction of tax on diesel, filling up of vacancies and replenishment of the fleet.

The KCR Government, however, took a hard stand and shut the doors on the employees, saying the staff had “dismissed themselves” by going ahead with the strike.

Meanwhile, the striking employees have intensified their agitation as they received support from mass organisations, other government employees, trade unions and the Opposition parties.

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