HC stays decision to privatise public transport in T’gana

Hyderabad The Telangana high court on Friday stayed the decision of the state cabinet to privatise 50% of the public transport in the state by giving permits to

Hyderabad The Telangana high court on Friday stayed the decision of the state cabinet to privatise 50% of the public transport in the state by giving permits to private transport operators to run as many as 5,100 buses.

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A division bench of the high court comprising chief justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and justice A Abhishek Reddy, gave the orders to this effect, acting on a petition filed by Telangana Democratic Forum convenor P L Vishweshwar Rao.

The bench posted the matter to November 11 for further hearing and directed that the state government submit the decisions made by the state cabinet on the road transport corporation (RTC).

The Telangana cabinet, headed by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, on November 2, decided that out of 10,400 routes in which the state-run RTC had been running till now, as many as 5,100 routes would be privatised. The chief minister also announced that the remaining routes, too, would be privatised if the 48,000-odd employees who had been on strike since October 5 did not return to their duties before the deadline of November 5 midnight. He instructed the transport department officials to issue a notification inviting applications from private parties to obtain transport permits.