Dinesh Kanwar

Hamirpur, November 30

Airtel has allegedly robbed hundreds of poor people of their salaries and gas subsidies in the past three months on account of upgrading old SIM cards.

With the launch of 4G services, Airtel sent SMSes to its customers to upgrade their SIMs and link their Aadhaar card but besides upgrading the SIM and linking their Adhaar cards, employees of Airtel also opened their Airtel Bank account and linked their gas subsidy to these accounts without informing the beneficiaries.

Not only this, the salary accounts of those who were earning livelihood from MGNREGA and ASHA health workers were also reportedly ported by the company to Airtel Bank. It came to the notice of the people when they complained about the gas subsidy at gas agencies and for MGNREGA salaries to the rural development authorities.

The district authorities were surprised to know that the money, released by them, had not gone to the beneficiaries’ accounts. Instead it had been deposited in Airtel Bank. It was apprehended that over millions of rupees could be deposited in Airtel Bank without the knowledge of the consumers. Many of them did not know how to operate the bank and most of the money could be used in recharging of the mobiles.

The poor, who were using Airtel mobile services, were running from pillar to post for getting their dues following the alleged mischief of the Airtel staff. Rattan Gautam, Additional District Magistrate and Project Officer of the District Rural Development Authorities, said the complaint against Airtel of linking subsidy and MGNREGA funds to Airtel Bank had been received. Airtel had been directed to immediately stop such exercise and take the consent of the people and inform them before making any such changes.