The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) strike has taken a serious turn with two deaths and two attempted suicides, as it entered its 10th day on Monday.

Thousands of striking employees intensified their stir as emotions ran high with a driver and a conductor committing suicide on Sunday.

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A shutdown was being observed on Monday in undivided Khammam district over the self-immolation by driver Srinivas Reddy.

Reddy, who set himself ablaze on Saturday in Khammam, died at a hospital in Hyderabad Sunday morning.

Shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed in undivided Khammam district on a shutdown call by Joint Action Committee (JAC) of employee unions.

Opposition Congress, BJP, TDP, CPI, CPI(M), TJS and other groups and student bodies have declared support to the shutdown call.

The JAC termed the suicides as murders by the government.

Both the employees were depressed over losing jobs as Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao refused to take back 48,000 employees into TSRTC as they had not joined the duty before the expiry of the government deadline.

Terming it as an “unpardonable crime”, the Telangana government on October 6 dismissed 48,000-odd employees of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) from service after they launched an indefinite strike demanding solution to their long-pending problems.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao also ruled out taking back those who did not join duties before the deadline set by the government.

The Chief Minister has rejected all the demands of the striking employees including the main demand for merger of TSRTC with the government. He also ruled out talks with them.

Terming the strike as illegal, the Telangana government had set the deadline of 6 pm on October 5 for the striking workers to return to their duties. However, about 50,000 employees continued their strike, paralysing bus services across the state.

The Chief Minister had even asked TSRTC officials to recruit drivers, conductors and other employees on a temporary basis. He asked them to restore total normalcy in bus operations by October 21.

As the JAC decided to intensify the strike by taking up series of protests this week, including a state-wide shutdown on October 19, the government has extended Dasara holidays for schools and colleges.

The educational institutions, which were to re-open on Monday following 15-day-long holidays, will now remain closed till October 19.

TSRTC management claims to be operating over 5,000 buses daily with the help of temporary drivers.

(With inputs from IANS)