Ambulance owners await six-month-old dues from PCMC

Promised Rs 75,000 a month, all of them reported to RTO with their vehicles but after only one month’s full payment they started getting Rs 50,000 from the contractor for next few months till that stopped as well, leaving them to beg from friends to make ends meet

Cases of COVID-19 have been witnessing a steady growth, like in several other cities in the state, in Pimpri-Chinchwad in the last couple of weeks but ambulance owners have complained that they are yet to get payment for services rendered in the last few months.

Several ambulance owners have complained that the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) is not paying attention to their woes but they are not discontinuing services to avoid any inconvenience to the COVID-19 patients and relatives of the deceased.

“When the Pune district collector ordered ambulance owners to attach their vehicles for COVID duties, we gave our ambulances to the regional transport office (RTO). Through RTO, we were deployed for COVID duties under PCMC from May last year. Most of the ambulance owners have got the payment only up to August but after that, there has not been any payment from the contractor,” said Vijay Jethwal, one of the aggrieved ambulance owners.

entered into a contract with the civic body where they were supposed to get a minimum of Rs 75,000 per month for running the ambulance every day. However, they claimed that after getting regular payment for the first few months, the amount was reduced to Rs 50,000 by the contractor. Speaking to Mirror, Sandip Kulkarni, another ambulance owner, said, “They had promised us to pay Rs 2,500 per day for per ambulance. Since the cases were rising in Pune and PCMC areas, we also did not bother about the negotiations and we agreed. However, after the first payout, we started getting only Rs 50,000 as our monthly payment. In the last three months, we have not got even that Rs 50,000 from the contractor.”


The ambulance owners stated that due to non-payment of bills, they are facing a huge financial crisis. “I have been running my house by borrowing money from others in the last three months. I did not even have money to pay my electricity bills and my connection was also disconnected. I have to tell my friend to pay my bills and that is how my whole family is surviving for the last three months now,” one of the ambulance owners said on condition of anonymity.

Not just the ambulance owners but even the ambulance drivers have claimed that they have not got the salary for the three months. SD Kamble, one of the drivers, said, “I was assured a salary of Rs 15,000 for plying ambulance for COVID duty. I got the payment for only three months and later I drove the ambulance without getting a salary for the next three months. I had no option but to quit the job. Now since the cases are rising, they have asked me to resume. However, I am not sure if I will get my dues or not.”

When contacted about this, PCMC commissioner Rajesh Patil said, “The issue has not yet come to me. The ambulance owners can meet and discuss the issue with me at my office. I will make sure that the issue is resolved at the earliest.”