DK Deputy Commissioner assures to clear dues of vehicles on COVID duty

Mangaluru, Nov 18: Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner Dr. Rajendra K V has assured to clear at the earliest all the pending bills of the vehicles deployed on COVID duty.

Owners of the vehicles had expressed unhappiness over the delay in payment of bills.

“For three months our vehicles were on COVID duty. They were used to take patients. The district administration had assured to pay ₹ 1,800 per day. Though it was not a satisfactory amount, we had agreed to join the fight against the pandemic,” Harish Putran, one of the vehicle owners, who are yet to get about ₹1 lakh from the district administration told The Canara Post.

Putran says that there are about 10 people like him in Mangaluru. The total pending payment is about ₹ 7 lakh.

“My car was used to take patients from various parts of the district. Somedays we traveled about 250 kms. I drove the vehicle myself and many a time we joined our hands in carrying the dead body too,” he said.

Harish says that about 10 vehicles have to get over ₹ 7 lakh from the district administration.

“Of the three months, the administration has paid the bills of one month to some of the vehicles. We are in difficulty. The pandemic has hit us also. It is better if the District administration provides us the money at the earliest,” he said and added that MLA Vedavyask Kamath had assured us to get released the payment at the earliest.

Deputy Commissioner Rajendra K V assured to make all the payments at the earliest.

“We have started the process of paying the bills of the vehicles used for COVID duty. The process of paying the bills will start immediately and we want to complete it at the earliest,” he added.