Telangana Governor seeks Law Secretary’s opinion on TSRTC Bill

Hyderabad, Aug 17: Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has sought legal opinion over Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (Absorption of Employees into Government Service) Bill-2023 and four other bills passed by the state Assembly recently.

In accordance with the Telangana Government Business Rules and Secretariat Instructions, all bills received from the Secretary to the State Legislature, including the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (Absorption of Employees into Government Service) Bill-2023, have been referred to the Law Secretary for opinion.

Raj Bhavan said that this is a normal practice stipulated in the relevant rules.

It mentioned that the Governor had provided 10 recommendations based on representations and in the best interests of the employees and the well-being of the corporation while permitting the introduction of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (Absorption of Employees into Government Service) Bill of 2023 in the Assembly.

Similarly, four other bills were earlier returned to the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council with messages containing certain recommendations.

“The Hon'ble Governor would like to ascertain whether these recommendations were properly taken care of in the bills now received or not,” reads the Raj Bhavan statement.

Raj Bhavan would like to clarify that based on the recommendations of the Law Secretary, further action on all bills, including the TSRTC bill, will be taken.

The Raj Bhavan denied reports that Governor withheld the TSRTC bill and decided to reserve it for the assent of the President of India.

“All members of the public in general and TSRTC employees, in particular, are urged not to be swayed by such false and baseless news spread by certain vested interests,” it said.

Telangana Assembly on August 6 passed TSRTC for absorption of over 43,000 employees of the TSRTC into the government service.

The Governor had granted approval for the introduction of the bill after uncertainty for four days.

Along with her approval, the Governor has made 10 recommendations to the state government.

She recommended that the ownership of the lands, assets, and properties of the TSRTC should vest with the Corporation itself for its sole and exclusive use, even after the absorption of RTC employees as government employees.

The draft bill was sent to the Governor on August 2. Since it is a money bill, it needed the governor’s approval for introducing the same in the Assembly.

After the government submitted a reply to clarifications sought on August4, the governor sought some more clarifications on Saturday.

On August 5, a section of TSRTC employees had gone on strike for a few hours demanding the governor to approve the bill. Hundreds of TSRTC employees had also marched to Raj Bhavan to press for their demand.

The Assembly during its four-day monsoon session had also passed four Bills which were earlier passed by the House but were sent back by the Governor with certain recommendations.