Kashmir Valley Electrical Contractors (KVEC) Association on Wednesday held protest against non-release of pending liabilities by Power Development Department (PDD) which are due in lieu of various works.
The protestors assembled outside the offices of various electrical divisions of PDD demanding ‘pending liabilities from the past four years’. The protest has come days after the association boycotted all the developmental projects of the department.
“It has been around four years now that we are going from pillar to post for our pending liabilities. We were made to work on a war footing on centrally schemes like Saubhagya, PMDP, DDGUY and other schemes but when it comes to our payment, the government is turning a blind eye. If the government will continue to delay our payments we will bring our families and of those laborers who we owe to streets,” said Syed Ali Rizvi, chief organiser of the association
Bashir Ahmed Mir, chairman of the association said that they will continue to protest unless liabilities worth crores of rupees are not paid.
“The department is bringing new schemes and floating tenders while payment of old works is yet to be done. We are under huge debt of banks and dues of our workers,” Mir said. “We will not participate in any developmental work unless our dues are cleared.”
The contractors said that on 23 of October they have apprised the Department in writing that they are boycotting the work unless their liabilities are cleared. They said that if the officials will continue to play ‘avoiding tactics’ they will have no other choice but to intensify their protests.
The contractors said that they have finished the projects like centrally funded Saubhagya in early 2019 and since then the payment is pending. They said that the snow damage repair work and work of other projects that they have done in 2016 and 2017 is also pending.