KOTHAGUDEM: Irregularities in payments to the provident fund and ESIC have majorly affected 66 outsourcing employees working under 104 in the medical and health department. The dereliction of duty on the part of district medical and health officials is glaring.
Curiously, instead of correcting the flaws, the officials are blaming the outsourcing employees.
As per details, about 66 employees of 104 service were allocated to Bhadradri-Kothagudem district while the district bifurcation was done in 2016. The contract of the private agency that was enlisted as the outsourcing agency, ended by March, 2017. Another agency was not appointed by DMHO officials and the department directly did the payments.
The department paid salaries to these 66 outsourcing employees from March, 2017 and June, 2018. However, the officials paid only the salaries but not the amounts under provident fund and ESIC during the period.
Later, the Guards Agency took the contract in July, 2018 and paid salaries to the employees.
Nargeswara Rao, an outsourcing employee, said the Guards Agency had not paid ESIC and PF contributions into the accounts of employees thereafter. It paid only salaries and deposited the PF and ESIC amounts into the bank accounts of the employees. The labour department found fault with the payment and sought an explanation from the department.
The employees said the agency took Rs 51 lakh as PF and ESI contributions from the government.
Due to the discontinuation of the PF and ESI accounts, the employees suffered a lot. Making a self-declaration on paying of the PF and ESIC amounts in their bank accounts is against the guidelines and the labour department sought clarification on this.
Another affected employee, P. Srinivas, said, “I took a Rs 80,000 loan for a surgery in a private hospital due to the absence of ESIC payments. We faced such a situation due to the fault of the officials.”
Bhadradri district DMHO Dayakara Swamy did not respond to queries from the media on this issue.
