Hyderabad, April 24: The indefinite strike by Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) employees entered its third consecutive day on Friday, with approximately 40,000 workers across the state refusing to report for duty, leaving thousands of commuters stranded. The crisis deepened following the death of a TGSRTC driver who self-immolated during a protest, even as a Cabinet sub-committee prepared to hold emergency talks with striking workers' leaders later in the day.

Driver's Death Intensifies Strike

Shankar Goud (55), a TGSRTC driver from Narsampet Depot in Warangal district, succumbed to his injuries at Apollo DRDO Hospital in Hyderabad in the early hours of Friday, April 25. He had sustained 80 per cent burns after setting himself ablaze during a protest demonstration by striking employees on Thursday.

His death has significantly raised the emotional temperature of the standoff, with fellow employees and opposition leaders rallying around his memory. At least two other TGSRTC employees attempted self-immolation on Thursday but were restrained by colleagues and police personnel in time.

Tension Over Body, BRS Enters the Fray

Serious tension erupted at Muthojipet when police blocked attempts by RTC employees to transport Shankar Goud's body back to Narsampet Depot, where he had set himself on fire. The standoff escalated into a scuffle between police and protestors.

Leaders of the Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) sided with the employees and attempted to assist in moving the body. BRS leader and former MLA Peddi Sudershan Reddy was subsequently detained by police and taken to a local police station. Security has since been heightened at RTC depots across Telangana to prevent similar incidents.

Impact on Public Transport Across Telangana

For the third straight day, the majority of TGSRTC buses remained parked inside depots statewide. The corporation claims to be running partial services using hired buses, private vehicles, and electric buses, with limited operations from Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) and Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) in Hyderabad.

Inter-state bus services to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra continued to operate from MGBS. The transport vacuum has triggered a massive surge in ridership on Hyderabad Metro Rail and MMTS trains. Government employees, private sector workers, students, and daily wage labourers are bearing the brunt of the disruption.

Government Response and Scheduled Talks

A Cabinet sub-committee led by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka is scheduled to sit down with Joint Action Committee (JAC) leaders representing the striking TGSRTC employees on Friday. The JAC held an emergency internal meeting following Shankar Goud's death to assess its position ahead of the negotiations.

The Telangana State Cabinet, which convened on Thursday evening, issued a public appeal urging employees to call off the strike and exercise restraint. The Cabinet assured that the government remains committed to resolving the underlying grievances through structured dialogue.

Deeper Context: A Pattern of RTC Crises in Telangana

This is not the first time TGSRTC has been the epicentre of a major labour standoff. Notably, a prolonged and bitter RTC strike in October 2019 under the then-BRS (formerly TRS) government resulted in the dismissal of thousands of employees and significant political controversy — a painful memory that many workers still carry. The current strike reflects unresolved structural issues around pay parity, service conditions, and corporation finances that have persisted across successive administrations.

Critics argue that successive Telangana governments have treated TGSRTC's financial distress as a recurring political bargaining chip rather than addressing root causes such as fleet modernisation, route rationalisation, and debt restructuring. The corporation, which serves millions of daily commuters — particularly in rural and semi-urban Telangana — remains financially stressed, making employee demands politically sensitive but economically complex.

The involvement of BRS in the current protest is also significant: the party, which governed Telangana for a decade, is now positioning itself as a champion of the very workers whose 2019 strike it crushed — a contradiction that opposition and civil society observers have been quick to highlight.

With Shankar Goud's death adding a human tragedy to the labour dispute, pressure on the Congress-led Telangana government to deliver a credible resolution has sharply intensified. The outcome of Friday's talks between the Cabinet sub-committee and JAC leaders will be closely watched — both for its immediate impact on public transport and for its signal about the government's ability to manage labour relations in the state.