Transport Minister Perni Venkataramaiah on Wednesday said steps were being taken for immediate appointment of 1,847 candidates on compassionate grounds for different posts.
Addressing the media, the Minister said 385 members from families of the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) employees who died before 2015 were given jobs in 2019, immediately after the YSR Congress Party came into power in the State. This time, the kin of the RTC employees employees who died since 2016 and those who died in service during the COVID-19 waves would be appointed.
He said besides APSRTC, the appointments would be made to posts in village and ward secretariats and in the nearly 40 departments that come under the District Collectors’ pool.
The Minister said after the oil manufacturing companies increased the fuel price for bulk buyers, the APSRTC had started purchasing diesel from private bunks and it had thus been saving ₹65 crore a month on the nearly 8 lakh liters of diesel consumed by its fleet of buses.
Electric buses
Mr. Venkataramaiah said the long-awaited electric buses would arrive and they would be flagged off by the Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The tender process had been completed and the buses would arrive in April. The plan was to ply 50 electric buses on the Tirupati-Tirumala route and a few others from Tirupati to Madanapalle, Kurnool and a few other places, he said.
Mr. Venkataramaiah announced that the 25% concession on RTC bus ticket fare that was stopped for senior citizens during COVID time (from May, 2020) would be restored from April 1. The decision would benefit two lakh senior citizens, he added.
He said the merger of the APSRTC had cost the government an additional burden of ₹3,600 crore. The idea was to save the debt-ridden corporation, he said.
Corporation Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Ch. Dwaraka Tirumala Rao was present.
