Hyderabad:  RTC Managing Director Sambasiva Rao on Thursday said that special transport arrangements would be made for the students appearing for the Eamcet across the state and urged all engineering colleges to ply buses free of cost in view of the agitation by the RTC crew.

Welcoming this announcement by the RTC Managing Director,  The Hans India thanked him for his gesture of making special arrangements to transport the Eamcet aspirants to examination centres and back home. This newspaper had on Wednesday made an appeal to the RTC unions to operate buses facilitating the students to appear for the exam.  

Sambasiva Rao also advised Eamcet students to make themselves available near the examination centers a day before as they would run possible number of buses from every bus depot. Adverting to the charter of demands of the agitating employees, the RTC MD said they have already implemented two of the three demands mentioned in the strike notice.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao appealed to the striking RTC unions to cooperate and withdraw their strike keeping in view the interests of about seven lakh students appearing for the Eamcet and DSC examinations from May 8 to May 11.

He asked the striking workers to call off their strike. He also requested the parents of the students appearing for the tests to ensure that their wards reach the examination centres much in advance. Ganta said the government has been taking necessary steps to provide alternative transport arrangements for the students, keeping in view of the impact of the ongoing strike of the RTC unions on the examinations.

As part of this, all private school buses in 13 districts of the state were blocked and the district collectors were asked to ensure that these buses are to be used to provide transport to various examination centres.

Toll-free number

A toll free number 1800 4256755 has been established for students appearing for the Eamcet to be held on Friday. Students can call on this number, if they face any difficulty in getting transport to reach out to their examination centres, a Visakhapatnam report said.