APSRTC management using employees' Credit Cooperative Society (CCS) fund to the tune of Rs 230 crores to run operations of the corporation, unions are on a warpath.They have decided to strike work from August 2, if the management fails to return the money by then.APSRTC unions claimed that the management has been withdrawing CCS money, contributed by each employee by paying six per cent of their salary, since the last four months. The corporation deducts the employee's contribution from his/her salary and credits it into the CCS fund. However, the RTC management has been using the fund for the last four months for payment of salaries besides meeting day-to-day requirements.Employees could avail student scholarship for their wards, housing loan, marriage loan and other welfare measures from CCS. Due to the management's decision to use the CCS money to circumvent liquidity crunch, employee welfare schemes were severely hit. The management claims they were forced to use the CCS funds as the governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were yet to release arrears. However, they did not get any assurance from both the state governments about when the money would be released."It is true that we used the CCS funds. We have apprised both the state governments about the issue. The moment we get our arrears, we will reimburse the CCS. We are using the CCS funds for working capital requirements,'' APSRTC director KV Venugopal Rao, who is now the in-charge managing director in the absence of MD Purnachander Rao, said. The AP government has to pay Rs 125 crores, while the Telangana government owes Rs 95 crores to the corporation. With no assurance from the management, RTC employees in both states have decided to take up protests starting with a three-day hunger strike. If both the governments fail to respond, all unions in both the states would strike work from August 2."The management has been taking away CCS funds without even informing us. They are not even in a position to tell when they will return the money. They are just passing the buck on to the state governments,'' employees' union general secretary K Padmakar told TOI. Telangana Mazdoor Union general secretary E Ashwatharama Reddy said many representations were given to the management to stop drawing CCS fund and immediately reimburse the already collected money, but all pleas fell on deaf ears.

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