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Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
The 24-day-old indefinite strike by Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation employees was called off late on Wednesday night after an agreement was reached between the joint action committee of employees unions and the state government.
Consequently, the state-wide strike called by opposition parties and trade unions in support of the agitating RTC employees on Thursday has been withdrawn.
The bus services have resumed from 4 am on Thursday.
This would go down in RTC history as the longest strike ever in which about 125,000 employees took part and 19,000 buses remained off the roads for 24 days.
The RTC incurred a revenue loss of Rs 1.68 billion.
The employees too stand to lose their wages for the strike period since the government remained firm on the principle of 'no-work, no-pay'.
The JAC leaders and cabinet sub-committee reached the settlement, which includes a wage revision package amounting to Rs 1.25 billion.
The other demands conceded by the government included reduction in Motor Vehicle Tax on RTC buses from 15 percent to 10 percent of gross earnings in urban areas, and from 15 percent to 12.5 percent in rural areas, and reimbursement of losses suffered by the RTC on account of concessions offered to different categories of commuters to the extent of 50 percent.
The revised wages would be implemented with retrospective effect from April 1, 2001.
The government has also given the assurance that the RTC would not be privatised.
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