10 hours ago
Contractor locks school over unpaid bills
Khanapur: When student and teachers on monday reached their school in Rajura village of Khanapur mandal in Nirmal district they found it under lock and key.
On enquiry they discovered that it was the contractor who had locked the school in protest to get his pending bills.
Contractor Srinivas who had repaired the Zilla Parishad Secondary School in Rajura village had not received payment for the pending bills. On Monday, as a protest he locked the main gate of the school so that neither students nor teachers could enter the premises. With this, the students and teachers could not enter the school and stayed outside.
The upset contractor said that he had repaired the school buildings for about Rs 40 lakh and that he was facing difficulties in getting the bills cleared and not being able to pay the debts.
He went out holding a petrol can and said that he would commit suicide if the bills were not cleared. Some villagers also supported the contractor who locked the school. When the matter reached the police, they tried to convince the contractor. They spoke to the Panchayat Raj department and Engineering officials on the phone to pay the bills.
When the Engineering department officials suggested that he should come to the Collector's office and submit a petition to the Collector about the bills, the contractor Srinivas, calmed down and unlocked the door and went to the Collector's office.
The Engineering officials told the contractor Srinivas that they had already sent reports to the government for the sanction of the bill and that they would work to get the bills. They told him to calm down until the bills were cleared and cooperate for the education of the children.
