Contractor's suicide puts limelight on Rs 35k crore need for state's Jal Jeevan Mission
As per the data, Maharashtra's annual plan for the year 2025-26 is of Rs 35,622 crore, of which Rs 19,259 crore is Centre's share and Rs 16,363 crore is the share of the state. Meanwhile, the Centre has already conveyed to the state government that it won't be releasing Jal Jeevan Mission funds for the time being.
Earlier this month, The Indian Express reported that the Maharashtra Government informed the Legislative Council that it has not received central funds for the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme since October 2024 and has been using funds from the state's coffers to complete the ongoing projects. It also stated that 51,558 schemes have been sanctioned under the mission, of which 26,009 are still ongoing.
However, in a written reply submitted to the Legislative Council, Maharashtra's Water Supply and Sanitation Department informed that the state government has disbursed funds worth Rs 2,483.58 crore to complete the ongoing schemes.
'We are corresponding with the central government to release funds at the earliest. To ensure that ongoing works are not stopped, for the year 2025-26, we have decided to give additional funds worth Rs 3,913 crore,' Meghana Sakore-Bordikar, Minister of State, had informed.
Earlier, a day after 35 year-old Harshal Patil committed suicide over non-payment of his dues worth Rs 1.4 crore, Maharashtra's Water Supply And Sanitation Minister Gulabrao Patil claimed that there are no records of pending dues of the said person.
Harshal's cousin Akshay Patil told police that the contractor was under immense financial stress. 'His bills worth Rs 1.4 crore were pending and he had also taken loan from money lenders. His financial stress was immense and he used to talk about the same for days,' said Patil.
According to his relatives, Harshal left home on Tuesday an did not return home, following which they filed a complaint at Kurlap police station in Sangli district. On Wednesday afternoon, his body was found hanging from a tree in a farm.
The Maharashtra State Contractor Association slammed the state government alleging that it has been consistently raising the pending dues worth Rs 89,000 crore for more than two years which were neglected by the state government. The association also released documents showing Patil had sublet the construction work.
'When I heard the news, I took information from the concerned officials. There was no record of pending dues . We do not know if he had sublet the work from any other contractor,' said State's Water Supply and Sanitation minister Gulabrao Patil.
Milind Bhosle, president, Maharashtra State Contractor Association, said that large number of small engineers had taken contracts of Jal Jeevan Mission work and the government has not paid their dues.
'There are dues worth Rs 89,000 crore pending and we have been consistently speaking about it. But nobody from the government gave any attention to it. This has now resulted in the suicide of a young contractor. He had also taken loan worth Rs 65 lakh and couldn't repay it since the government did not pay the dues,' said Bhosle.
Opposition NCP(SP) leader Jayant Patil said that he had warned the state government in his speech at the legislative Assembly about such a possibility. 'I had warned the possibility of contractors committing suicides. But the government paid no attention to it,' he said. Harshal Patil was a resident of Walwa taluka in Sangli, the home district of Jayant Patil.
Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar said that after farmers, contractors are committing suicides in the state. 'The government is responsible for his death. The state has gone bankrupt and there is no one from the government who is looking after it,' he said.
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