Hyderabad: Government payment continues to elude hired-vehicle owners

Hyderabad: The Government departments hiring vehicles of owner-cum-drivers are yet to clear their bills over the last several months. Around 19,000 vehicles engaged on hire by the Transport Department are spread in various government departments. Drivers ire that they have been facing difficulties to earn for a livelihood as the departments have not cleared their bills yet.

Adding to their woes, Telangana Four-Wheeler Driver's Association said that there has been no revision of fixed hire charges for vehicles engaged on hire since last five years and have demanded for revision of hire charges for their vehicles.

According to the Telangana Four-Wheeler Driver's Association, a majority of drivers-cum-owners have not received the monthly bills amounts for the last 6 to 8 months and most of the bills have been pending since a year.

The bills of commercial tax department, Panchayat Raj, Women's and child department, ground water, drugs control among other departments are yet to be cleared yet. Every expense including fuel has been done from the driver's pocket. We owner-cum drivers are facing difficulties to spend for our livelihood, said the drivers.

There are over 19,000 owners-cum-drivers spread in all the Government departments. Shaik Salauddin, State President of the association said, "We are about 19,000 families in the entire Government departments and these families in all Departments are dependent on this hired vehicle system. We are helpless as the bills haven't been cleared for about 6, 8, 10, 12 months and few for the last two years," he added.

"Our vehicles are mostly used for Government departments round the clock for most difficult jobs like Enforcement duties, protocol duties and other emergencies, but our payments are delayed and long-pending," he pointed out. "We demand the government and departments to clear the hired vehicle bills at the earliest and not delay our payments further."

The hire charges were also increased in 2017, with Rs 33,000 in districts and Rs 34,000 in Greater Hyderabad both for 2,500 kms. According to a scheme, the private vehicles, which are registered as a Taxi can only be hired for Government duty, he added.

Drivers rued that monthly Rs 34,000 is not enough, as now the cost of living and maintenance has increased. The entire expenses including fuel, taxes, fitness, permits and other fares were also increased and paying monthly EMIs has also got difficult as our bills haven't got cleared yet, said Mohammed Yousufuddin, a driver.

For revision of hire charges for our vehicles, the association also gave a representation to the State Transport minister, Principal secretary and commissioner of transport department, but no steps have been taken yet. We owners-cum-drivers demand for the revision of hire charges," said Kune Prakash, General secretary of the association.