Vinod Poddar, the retired employee of the Bihar State Sugar Corporation who is suffering from chronic heart ailment, has been forced to borrow money from a relative to pay for his treatment at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

The need for the loan, however, was a result of the alleged apathy of the sugar corporation, which has not paid his salary for the past six years.

Poddar, a retired liaison officer of the corporation, is getting treatment at the coronary centre unit of Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology at Patna Medical College and Hospital since April 11. Despite being referred to the AIIMS last Wednesday, he kept postponing his discharge. However, he has now decided to leave for New Delhi on Monday.

“I have not received a single penny from the sugar corporation against my pending salaries and other retirement benefits till date. I have continuous pain in heart and the doctors are repeatedly asking me to visit AIIMS for advanced treatment. I hardly have any money because the sugar corporation has not paid me anything. I have spoken to one of my relatives, who has agreed to give me money. Now, I have decided to leave next Monday,” Poddar told The Telegraph on Wednesday.

In pursuance of his pending salary for meeting the treatment expenses and sustaining his family, Poddar wrote a letter to the state cane commissioner on October 10, 2011, and the principal secretary of the sugarcane department.

“The salaries of many employees are pending because the corporation has become virtually defunct. However, considering the huge backlog in the payment of salaries, we are now in the process of re-opening a personal ledger account of employees, which has been made mandatory by the state finance commissioner. Once the accounts are re-opened, we would look after the payment of pending salaries by utilising whatever financial resources are available with us,” said Lakshmeshwar Jha, the state sugarcane commissioner-cum-managing director of Bihar State Sugar Corporation.

Of the total 15 mills, the sugar corporation has leased out eight mills and generated Rs 130 crore till date.

However, the corporation is claiming that the amount is being utilised at present to make payments to workers of the leased-out mills. “Whatever money was generated by leasing out the eight mills is sufficient only for paying compensation to the workers of the corporation. Moreover, we might need to take loan for clearing the pending salaries of the employees of the corporation working at its headquarters,” said Jha.

According to sources, over 100 employees of the corporation posted at the headquarters of the Bihar State Sugar Corporation at New Secretariat have not received salaries for several years like Poddar.

He retired from Bihar State Sugar Corporation on September 30, 2011, and has a history of coronary heart disease since 2005.