Contractors send legal notice to CM over 90,000-crore dues
Represented by the Builders' Association of India (BAI), the contractors say they have been demanding that the government release their dues for a year, but to no avail. The work they have executed includes infrastructure projects such as the building of roads and bridges, irrigation works, and repairs of government buildings, among other things.
In February, Anand Gupta, vice-president, BAI, said at a press conference that contractors would launch a 'stop work protest' if they didn't get their money soon. The public works department owes them ₹46,000 crore; Jal Jeevan Mission ₹18,000 crore; rural development department ₹8,600 crore; water resources department ₹19,700 crore; and urban development department ₹1,700 crore, among others. The total outstanding sum is more than ₹90,000 crore.
The contractors are particularly upset with the government's largesse under the Ladki Bahin Scheme, which has stirred much controversy since it was launched as an election sop late last year. In February, the association pointed out that while contractors weren't being paid money owed to them, the state was spending taxpayers' money – ₹3,700 crore a month – to hand out ₹1,500 a month to 2.46 crore women across the state.
When no word was forthcoming form the government, BAI on June 10 sent a legal notice to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, deputy chief ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, chief secretary Sujata Saunik, and several other ministers and secretaries of various government departments.
'The dues have crossed ₹90,000 crore and it has become difficult to work without money. Contractors have been paying heavy interest on unpaid bills to banks, from which funds have been borrowed to carry out the work. We want the government to give us a payment schedule with a time limit. If the state government does not do this within a fortnight, we will approach the high court,' according to the legal notice sent by BAI.
Gupta said that when BAI representatives and contractors met state officials, the latter expressed their inability to pay their dues. They said they were constrained by the state's budget. 'On the other hand, the government has been spending over ₹40,000 crore on the social sector, to hand out cash benefits. The government is free to do whatever it wants but, first, it should pay us for completed works,' he said.
This year, the state finance minister presented a ₹7.20 lakh crore annual budget, with a ₹45,892-crore revenue deficit and ₹1,36,234-crore fiscal deficit. And, yet, despite these alarming numbers, an allocation of ₹36,000 crore has been made for the Ladki Bahin scheme.
Calls and text messages to the offices of the chief minister, chief secretary, finance minister Ajit Pawar, and additional chief secretary of the finance department OP Gupta went unanswered.
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