Hyderabad: As many as 250 nurses who were deployed in 2020 as frontline workers against the COVID-19 pandemic now find themselves in distress with unexplained salary deductions. The nurses who usually draw a monthly salary less than Rs 25,000, are complaining that up to Rs 6,000 is being deducted.
Siasat.com spoke to some staff nurses who joined COVID-19 duty in June 2020 at the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS). One of them said that Rs 6,000 TDS (tax deducted at source) was being deducted from her salary since September.
However, the ‘TDS’ amount deducted is different for staff nurses in the same pay band. “For some of my colleagues, Rs 3,000 was deducted, and for some Rs 5,000 was deducted,” she said.
This started happening, she said, after the ground-floor OP (outpatient) services at TIMS were stopped, and all equipment, except the beds, was relocated to other hospitals. The slow disintegration of TIMS resulted in the staff getting deployed to various government hospitals, including Gandhi Hospital, NIMS, Koti Maternity Hospital, Niloufer Hospital, Siddipet Government Hospital, and others.
On August 6 this year, state health minister Harish Rao announced the Telangana government was setting up four 1000-bed TIMS in and around Hyderabad, modelled on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
As the authorities began moving the equipment, the nursing staff and others have become a worried lot. “We do not know why they are deducting money, with no explanation,” said another nurse, adding they were planning to either submit a mass resignation or file a lawsuit against the state government for siphoning off their salaries.
Despite repeated attempts, director of medical education Ramesh Reddy was unavailable for comment. The story will be updated as and when senior officials respond.
