Telangana: Hired drivers not paid for over a year by govt

Hyderabad: Over a hundred drivers hired by the women and child welfare department (WCWD) across various districts in Telangana are yet to receive their payment .

Some of the drivers claimed that they have not received their payments for over a year. One of the drivers, Sagar from Suryapet, said that he had to mortgage his wife’s jewellery as he had stopped receiving payments while working with an ICDS officer in the district.

“During the lockdown, I had to take a loan from a private financier for daily household expenses and EMI of Rs 18,000 every month for the car. I have not received payment for over 15 months now. Last year, the schools complained thrice about the delay in school fee payment for two of my children but somehow I managed by borrowing money from relatives,” said Sagar, who is now worried about finding money to pay the accumulated debt. Another driver, Hamid from Nalgonda, said that he had last received his payment in June 2019. He too had to mortgage his mother’s gold and took loans from various sources to make ends meet.

According to the department however, four months’ worth of payments towards hired vehicles for ICDS officers had been sanctioned recently and bills for the same had been submitted to the treasury for clearance. Officials said that the lockdown in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic has also impacted the release of funds, thus adding to the delay.

Like Sagar, as many as 126 drivers from various districts — primarily Suryapet, Vikarabad, Siddipet, Sangareddy and Nalgonda — have been facing hardships due to the delay in payment.

According to the WCWD, the government had issued orders for continuation and sanction of new hired vehicles in March, however, the budget could not be allocated immediately then due to end of the financial year. “Recently, four months budget was sanctioned. Over Rs 7.20 crore is required to clear the retrospective bills,” said a source in the department.(Names of hired drivers have been changed on request)