Kadapa: Security personnel guarding the Kadapa General Hospital are virtually starving. Salaries for them are a pittance; less than ten thousand per month. Yet, the payment for several months is pending and they're all in serious financial trouble.
Some 91 security personnel working in Kadapa RIMS have not been paid for the last ten months. Though they took this to the attention of the authorities and leaders, the payment is not forthcoming.
The security guards in RIMS perform various odd duties at various departments. They act as a bridge between doctors and nurses, and are also available to patients and physicians. During the coronavirus spread, they served as frontline warriors.
Security guards say their superiors are not bothered as to how much trouble they are facing without salaries. Most security guards work on a salary of Rs 8200 per month. As many as 91 security guards are working in three shifts.
It was on August 15, 2014 that 36 security guards were sent to RIMS by the Saikrishna security agency. On completion of the agency tender in 2016, another agency, Jai Balaji, won the tender.
Following this, as many as 91 security guards were taken to various departments. The individual who took subcontract from Jai Balaji agency says he treated the security guards as his own family members. Even when he got the money late from the agency, he made it a point to pay these guards money.
The outsourcing agency tender expired in June 2020. Trouble began for the security personnel ever since.
The guards report to the hospital superintendent. This responsibility was later transferred to the Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA).
Under the auspices of MEPMA, the Eastern Urban Women's Federation in Kadapa was entrusted with the task of management of these security guards. Their salaries were paid from December 2019 to May 2020. RIMs have not been paying salaries to security guards since June 2020.
Security guard Marasa Harikrishna told the Deccan Chronicle that he had complained to all the superiors but no one cared. He said they had also reported their problem to the district collector and the RIMs superintendent. He was in tears, saying his superiors were threatening to drive him out if he made any fuss.
RIMs resident medical officer (RMO) Nallagundla Kondaiah told Deccan Chronicle that till March 15, 2021, the salary files of security personnel were sent to the government. The bills were pending in the treasury and the salaries would be credited to their accounts once the funds were released from there.
