Bengaluru: Former Ministers and senior Congress leaders Ramalingareddy and H.M. Revanna have opposed any moves to privatise the four State-run Transport Corporations — KSRTC, BMTC, NWKRTC and NEKRTC — in the wake of the ongoing indefinite strike by employees who have sought fulfilment of their various demands, including salary as per the Sixth Pay Commission.

Speaking to press persons at Benglauru on Monday, Ramalinga Reddy and H.M. Revanna, who both had held Transport portfolio in the Congress Government earlier, maintained that the Transport employees did not resort to any strike when the two were in-charge of the portfolio. But now, thanks to the indifference of Dy.CM Laxman Savadi, who holds the Transport portfolio, the employees have resorted to an indefinite strike, with the Government neither holding talks nor responding to their demands.

Urging the Govt. not to give false promises to employees, they said, the Government should have taken a firm stand when the employees had launched a similar strike in December last. Contending that the CM and Transport Minister had failed to understand the very idea behind the State-run Transport service, the former Minister duo alleged that the Govt. was purposefully ignoring the strike in order to privatise Public Transport in stages. Asserting that such moves are not wise, taking into consideration the interests of the common man, they demanded that the Government should take the strike seriously and put an end it to it immediately.

Referring to the spike in COVID cases, the former Ministers blamed lack of co-ordination between Ministers in the B.S. Yediyurappa Cabinet and the failure of Health Minister Dr. K. Sudhakar for the sudden spurt in the pandemic. They also questioned the Government’s plans to contain the spread of the pandemic.