The Telangana state cabinet late on Tuesday decided to constitute a three-member committee of IAS officials to consider the demands of the employees of the state-owned Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC).

The cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao appealed to TSRTC employees to drop their plans to go on strike from October 5 to prevent further losses to the public transport body and also to avoid inconvenience to the travelling public during the festival season.

The decision was taken two days after TSRTC employees decided to go on strike to press for their demands, including merger of TSRTC with the government, and pay revision.

The meeting, which began at 4 p.m. and continued till late in the night, constituted a three-member panel headed by special Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar. Principal Secretaries Ramakrishna Rao and Sunil Sharma will be members of the committee, said a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office released around midnight.

“This committee is expected to discuss with TSRTC employees and after thoroughly examining the demands, it will submit a report as early as possible to the government. The government will initiate action based on the report accordingly,” it said.

The cabinet decided to save TSRTC under any circumstances as it is providing transport facility to the poor. The meeting discussed a strategy for this purpose.