Hyderabad: Civic body drivers have no licence, experience

Hyderabad: Even the Telangana Chief Minister has pointed out that most of them do not have driving licenses and are inexperienced drivers. They are usually recruited on recommendations by corporators and their henchmen. GHMC drivers have been booked for accidents and even rape cases in the recent past. There is no background check during recruitment.

Presently, the GHMC has outsourced over 975 drivers, which is a surplus as many of them stay away from work. Earlier, it had been reported that there were around 3000 bogus workers drawing salaries every month.

The death of Akula Bhumaiah, president, Telangana Praja Front (TPF), who was knocked down by a GHMC vehicle in 2013, exposed the fact that in absence of drivers, cleaners operate the vehicles. “According to the RTA rules, the maximum life of any vehicle is 15 years. After the expiry date, a fitness certificate has to be obtained from the RTA for every passing year.

Out of 773 vehicles, nearly 163 GHMC vehicles are more than 15 years old and 180 are in between 10 and 15 years. Drivers have no identity cards, their driving skills are not tested before recruiting them, and in most of the cases, cleaner who have been working for years are hired as drivers,” said a source at GHMC.