a day ago
Contractors protest outside govt offices for payment
Kolhapur: Hundreds of contractors sat in protest outside govt offices across all districts on Tuesday, protesting against the state govt's failure to pay their dues of over Rs89,000 crore.
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Contractors who have signed up for public works said they have not received payment from various govt departments. The public works department has the highest dues of Rs36,000 crore, followed by Jal Jeevan Mission, with dues of over Rs12,500 crore.
The contractors sat in rain the whole day. They claimed that they have been facing heavy financial troubles due to the delay in payment. Recently, a sub-contractor from Sangli district committed suicide, allegedly due to financial distress caused by delay in payment from govt for works worth Rs1.5 crore.
"Not a single representative of the govt, nor any official, paid a visit to the grieving family of the contractor. This is not the way the govt should treat the contractors without whom no govt can carry out development works," said a protesting contractor from Kolhapur.
The contractors claimed that they had carried out various works on assurance from officials and leaders.
"Now the Centre has written to the state govt expressing its inability to pay for the work done by us.
We are facing the brunt at the end. We will wait for some days and decide to take further course of action for fulfilment of our demands," said Milind Bhosale, state president of Federation of Contractors and Engineers.
Bhosale said that none from the govt paid a visit to the protesting contractors on Tuesday. He, however, claimed that some local leaders reached out to them through phone calls, assuring a meeting with the CM soon. "We are hopeful," said Bhosale.
