Srinagar, Oct 12: Accusing government of being indifferent to their “genuine” demands, the J&K Central Contractors’ Coordination Committee (JKCCCC) today threatened to stop work on all developmental projects and boycott tenders.
 The association issued an ultimatum of Oct 20 to the government asking it to address their problems, or else “we will stop the work on all developmental projects and boycott tenders.”
 General Secretary, JKCCCC, Farooq Ahmad Dar while addressing a press conference here said: “The government has been insensitive to our demands.”
 He said the JKCCC members would hold a peaceful march from Press Enclave to Civil Secretariat on Oct 20 “to remind the government our genuine demands.”
 “If our demands are ignored, we will stop work on all developmental projects and boycott all tenders from that date,” Dar said.
 Speaking about the demands, he said the contractors were being compelled to pay double service sales tax on execution of development works. “We have been since long demanding that this practice should be abolished,” he said.
 “We had earlier raised this issue with Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, MoS for Home Nasir Aslam Wani and other senior government officers. We had brought it to their notice that despite paying 10 percent tax on every development works, the contractors are being made to pay additional sales service taxes for the same development works,” he said.
 He said that despite Chief Minister’s “assurance”, the ground situation continues to be the same.
 He said the contractors were being made pay tax on gross amount, “while as the law says the taxes have to be calculated and collected on the net amount.”
 He said the JKCCCC had informed the CM about this “manipulative practice” yet no action has been taken.

Diversion of funds
 General Secretary, JKCCCC said it was unfortunate that the “funds were being diverted from Kashmir division to Jammu division at the fag.”
 “This has become a routine now with the government. At the end of every financial year a considerable portion of money is deliberately diverted to Jammu division from Kashmir division,” he said, adding that this practice adversely affects the developmental scenario in Kashmir.
 Dar accused the government of bias towards Jammu and Ladakh regions while ignoring Kashmir. “The two regions in the budget got Rs 150 crore additional allocation, while Kashmir did not get anything,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:00 IST