Kakinada: Village volunteers stage stir for salaries

Kakinada: A group of village volunteers staged a protest after climbing atop of overhead tank over non-payment of salaries for the last 10 months at Jaggampeta under Kirlampudi mandal in the district on Tuesday. They raised slogans demanding that the district authorities clear their salary dues. They expressed their anguish over the indifferent attitude of the district collector, joint collector , DPO and mandal parishad development officer (MPDO) despite their numerous representations.

According to them, they were recruited by MPDO Sri Lalitha in the second phase of recruitment. One of the volunteers Kakileti Siva of Rajupalem village said their appointment was made by the MPDO. They lamented that despite their hard work and attending the duties during this critical Covid-19 period, they were not paid even a single rupee for all these months.

Siva said there were 96 village volunteers in Kirlampudi mandal who have to be paid to the tune of Rs 50 lakh for the last 10 months.

He alleged that the MPDO was assuring to ensure payment in four-five days whenever they approach her but nothing has happened.

When contacted, MPDO Sri Lalitha told 'The Hans India' that put the delay in payment of salaries down to a technical glitch in mode of their recruitment which is causing problems in paying their salaries through Comprehensive Financial Management System (CFMS).

She said the high power committed constituted by the state government had approved the salaries for the volunteers already though written communication was yet to be received. Sri Lalitha assured that the salaries for the volunteers would be paid in the next two weeks.