High Court Fumes Over RTC MD's Number Gimmicks

[Anta Assamey]

The Telangana High Court has fumed over RTC incharge MD Sunil Sharma for filing an unbalanced report about the debts to be paid to RTC by the state government and GHMC.

GHMC was supposed to pay Rs 1786.06 crore to RTC and despite being Rs 550 crore deficit, the municipal corporation had paid Rs 336 crore, informed Sunil Sharma the court. However in the report, it is mentioned that GHMC just paid Rs 108 crore for the year 2015-16 and the court questioned how did GHMC pay the rest of the Rs 228 crore following year. Under the section 112(30) GHMC has to compensate for the losses of RTC for running buses in the twin cities.

Also Sunil Sharma told the court that the government cleared the dues of Rs 664.51 crore to RTC. From the strike from October 5th to 30th, the expenditure was Rs 160 crore while the income was Rs 78 crore.

The advocate on behalf of the RTC employees argued that the transport minister in the Telangana assembly stated the government is yet to clear the dues to RTC.

'We don't think the minister misguided the Assembly. Should I believe the minister or the report,' asked the court. 'Are you trying to bluff us with numbers gimmick,' questioned the court to Sunil Sharma and also asked for a fresh detailed report by Thursday.