Polavaram Taxi contractors stare at bleak future

Rajamahendravaram(East Godavari District): The hopes of people, who leased their cars for Polavaram Project office at Dowleswaram on contract basis, were shattered as their cars were confiscated by the finance companies. Besides, payments pending for more than one and half year added to their woes. The Water Resources department hired a total of 115 taxi registration cars in 2015 for the use of staff and officials of Polavaram project office in Dowleswaram. A contract was signed between the two parties to pay Rs 35,000 per month for each car. The owners also got employment as drivers of their own car.

Taxi operators said that payments were made smoothly till 2020. After that, bill payments to taxi contractors under Polavaram project office have stopped for one and a half year. Thus, the amount owed by the government to taxi operators is estimated to be up to Rs 3.5 crore.

Taxi driver cum owner KV Narasimha Raju informed that payments were delayed from April to June, but thereafter they were paid every month.

According to him, the officials concerned told the car owners to replace the cars as they are old in early 2021 and cars purchased after 2016 only will be allowed for the contract. Hence, all taxi owners purchased new model cars by taking loans from finance companies and replaced the old ones. Narasimha Raju said that contract amount from Polavaram project was stopped from August of the same year.

AP Taxi Owners and Drivers Welfare Association State president Muchakarla Satyanarayana said that the sudden stopping of bill payments threw the taxi operators into financial crisis. Besides, they were under pressure from finance companies.

Satyanarayana said that on behalf of their association, they initially persuaded finance companies' representatives from taking further action. But due to accumulation of arrears for a year, they had to hand over the cars to the finance companies. Around 30 people lost their cars so far, he informed.

When The Hans India contacted the Water Resources department official, who is the supervising officer for this contract, he refused to speak.

Other officials, off the record, said that this issue could be resolved only after the Polavaram project restarts totally and till then they cannot tell anything officially.

Representatives of AP Taxi Owners and Drivers Welfare Association explained the issue to District Collector Dr K Madhavi Latha on November 2 last year during Spandana programme. They also registered a petition. The Collector was surprised to know that the arrears of taxi services had accumulated to more than Rs 3 crore. Despite her promise to solve this problem immediately, there was no progress.

When enquired, the Collectorate staff said that the petition was sent to Irrigation Head Works and Polavaram Project SE, but no action was taken till date.

If the government links bills payment to the completion of Polavaram project, the drivers are wondering whether their arrears will ever be settled. They warned that if their problem is not resolved immediately, they will take up agitation in stages.