With no pensions for last three months, retired staff of Sports Authority of Telangana face hardships

Even salaries of regular staff delayed by the State government every month

HYDERABAD: Who will care for us? Well, this is the question the retired employees of the Sports Authority of Telangana have been asking for the last three months, as their repeated pleas to release the monthly pension seem to be falling on deaf ears.

Even salaries to regular staff are being delayed every month now!

For about 150 staff of SATG, understandably, it has been a miserable experience, and one can easily empathise with their woes given the fact that their sole earning is the pension after years of service.

Not the kind of scenario which the sports-loving Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy would have even visualised. Yes, these staff wonder whether the issue has come to the notice of the Chief Minister!

“It’s three months, we haven’t got a pension. It’s totally inhuman. It’s not known how our retired SATG employees are managing their financial problems, viz EMIs, Rents, electricity bills, provisions and the expensive medical bills,” says R Janardhan Reddy, chairman of the SATG Retired Employees Association.

A respected coach of yesteryears, the 74-year-old Janardhan Reddy, says it is wrong to say that the State government doesn’t have funds. “When the salaries of the in-service employees are being paid and with all freebies, why not our pension?” he asked.

The constant reply from the senior official of the SATG is that they have forwarded the pension cheques, but they were not being cleared by the Finance Department for want of funds.

“Worse, even the regular pension benefits on superannuation have not been cleared for close to two years in most cases. Only the Provident Fund amount is being released,” it is pointed out.

“There is a lack of proper management on many key subjects, including finance, time, and personnel. But why should the pensioners suffer because of the follies of some other department,” Janardhan Reddy said, reminding that SATG is an aided institution run by the government.

“Do we deserve this kind of treatment after years of selfless service, slogging out there braving extreme weather conditions?” the pensioners ask.