Hyderabad: As the TRSTC strike entered its 18th day on Tuesday, the striking employees took to a novel way to protest. They presented flowers to temporary drivers and conductors requesting them not to attend to their duties and cooperate with the agitating employees.

The temporary employees were told that the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the striking employees is also fighting for filling up the vacancies in the transport utility and, hence they will also gain from the ongoing strike.

More than 48,000 employees of TSRTC have been on strike since October 5 to press for their demands, which includes the merger of the TSRTC with the government so that they are treated at par with the government employees.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has not yet softened his stand and has declared the strike as illegal and rejected all the demands.

The Telangana High Court has twice suggested to both the parties to resolve the issue through talks, no initiative was taken by either side to break the impasse.

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