Frontline warriors in AP yet to get salaries

Amaravati: Some of the sanitary workers and others serving in the municipalities, corporations and other local bodies in the State did not get their salaries for the month of March, even after completing 8 days. In fact, the government has decided to give full salaries to the frontline workers including health, medical, police and certain sections of municipal employees. But, to date, the sanitary workers did not get the salaries and the government was telling different stories to the employees when they asked their higher officials.

It is pathetic to note here that, some of the sanitary workers have been requesting the residents in Guntur to donate groceries while collecting the garbage, as the State government utterly failed in depositing their monthly wages. In fact, the sanitary workers have been rendering services on contractual and outsourcing basis and their wages are meagre enough to meet monthly expenditure. Though the government released 15 days salaries to some of the regular employees in the urban local bodies, it still did not release the salaries and wages of majority employees.

When this correspondent tried to contact Vijaya Kumar G. Srkr, Commissioner and Director, Municipal Administration did not respond to the call. On the other hand, the officials at the Finance Department informed that they uploaded the salary documents on the CFMS on Thursday and the salaries and wages of the pending employees will be credited by Monday morning, or earlier.

About Rs 1.70 crore salary amount related to 1660 workers in the Guntur Municipal Corporation alone is pending with the State government. It is the same in all the municipalities and corporations in the State, informed an officer in the Municipal Administration and Urban Development department. Thousands of employees have been working without getting their salaries.

On the other hand, the government deployed the APSRTC, Transportation, Forest, Civil Supplies employees for the COVID19 duties. But, they also did not get full salaries, despite having engaged in preventive works. An RTC employee informed that they did not get the full salary, but working on the roads along with regular police personnel to control the movement of people. He further explained that the government did not even provide masks to the APSRTC employees, unlike in the case of the police department. The APSRTC employees have been controlling the people's movement by just tying a kerchief to their face.