Telangana Cultural Council artists salaries due since March

These folk artists had kept alive the Telangana sentiment through their songs for nearly 14 years.

Karimnagar: Telangana Cultural Council artists, who played a vital role in the formation of the separate Telangana, are now facing troubles with their salaries not being paid since March. It will be the fourth straight month without salaries for them if they are not paid before the end of July.

The artists, who are completely dependent on their salaries, are facing troubles sustaining their families. These folk artists had kept alive the Telangana sentiment through their songs for nearly 14 years.

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Recognizing their services, the previous BRS government had provided jobs to 583 artists under the Telangana Cultural Council and fixed a salary of Rs.24,514 to each artist per month.

The artists, who work under the District Public Relations Officer, are being utilized to make the publicity of government schemes. They educate the people about the government schemes by conducting programmes in rural areas.

However, they are facing troubles due to pending salaries during the last three months. Since all of them hail from poor backgrounds, they were facing troubles running their families.

Despite representations to Ministers, there was no response from the State government, they said.

Speaking to Telangana Today, an artist said they were facing severe troubles due to pending salaries during the last three months. Bankers mounting pressure to clear EMIs. Three artists had already died unable to get treatment for diseases, he said.

They gave representations to Ministers D Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar and Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy when they participated in the Rythu Bharosa consultation meeting held in Karimnagar recently.

But, there was no response from the government. On the other hand, the government was not extending any support to the kin of the deceased artists.

Except providing Rs.5 lakh by reducing it from the salaries of other artists, no assistance has been provided from the government side, they said, also demanding jobs for the kin of the deceased artists.