Hired vehicle drivers in dire straits

Hyderabad: The owner-cum-drivers spread in all the government departments are facing difficulties for living a proper livelihood, as for the last four years there has been no revision of fixed hire charges for vehicles engaged on hire by the Transport Department. Adding to their woes, the Telangana Four-Wheeler Drivers' Association said that their bills were also not cleared for the last several months and they demanded for the revision of hire charges for their vehicles and to clear their pending bills.

The hire charges were 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, private vehicles, which are registered as a Taxi can only be hired for Government duty. The owner of the vehicle hired for Government duty should produce valid documents like permit, fitness certificate, insurance, tax and many more documents.

Drivers said that monthly Rs 33,000 is not enough, as now the cost of living and maintenance has increased. Even diesel prices are totally different compared to 2017. 33,000 is not enough as we have pay for the entire expenses like diesel, taxes, fitness, permits, paying monthly EMIs and many more.

Shaik Salauddin, State President Telangana, Telangana Four-Wheeler Driver's Association said, "From 2017 to 2022 prices of POL have increased from 37 per cent to around 45 per cent. The price of diesel was Rs 58 per litre now touching Rs 100 per liter. During the same period the cost of living has increased by more than 30 per cent. With the increase in diesel prices, the government has increased the TSRTC bus fares, but we hired drivers are not paid accordingly."

"A majority of drivers-cum-owners have not received monthly bills for the last six to eight months. Every expense including diesel has to be spent from the driver's pocket only. We owner-cum-drivers are facing difficulties in living a proper livelihood," pointed Salauddin.

The Association said that there are around 19,000 owners-cum-drivers spread in all the Government Departments who own these vehicles and are hired with the all government departments. Their vehicles are mostly used for Government departments round the clock for most difficult jobs like Enforcement duties, protocol duties and other emergencies.

"We are about 19,000 families in the entire Government and these families in all the departments are dependent on this hired vehicle system. 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 still nothing has been done yet. We owners-cum-drivers demand for the revision of hire charges," demanded Kune Prakash, General secretary of the association.