Won’t carry even minor repairs till pending bills not cleared: Contractors

Over 30,000 contractors in Jammu and Kashmir have decided not to carry any road repairs or development works till the state government clears their unpaid liability of Rs 719 crore.

Jammu and KashmirContractors Coordination Committee- an amalgam of contractors from all threedivisions of the state having membership of over 30,000 contractors, on Fridayheld protest demonstrations across the state and also locked the engineeringcomplex which houses the offices of chief engineers of PWD, PHE, I&FC departmentsin Rajbagh.

   

Protesting contractorsalso assembled outside the Sadder treasury demanding release of pending billsamounting to Rs 719 crore. They also lambasted the finance department forissuing an SRO asking head of department not to exceed over 15 percentexpenditure of the revised budget during the last month of the financial year.

“We have decided toboycott all developmental activities, neither will we carry any works nor wouldwe allow anybody to carry even minor repairs of the roads in Jammu and Kashmir,”said chairman, JKCCC, Ghulam Jeelani Purza.

“We have locked the engineer complex to lodge our protest ascontractors are being pushed to wall. Most of the contractors have turnedbankrupt as we had borrowed money from banks to invest, but our bills since2014 floods are pending which forced us to bankruptcy. We are not able to evenfeed our families, our children are being thrown out of schools as our unpaidbills are yet to be cleared by the state government,” he said.

“Now the financedepartment has issued SRO 186 in which they have asked the head of departmentnot to spend over15 percent of the total expenditure, which clearly indicatesthat the state government is not ready to pay our bills,” Purza added.

The order reads, “Thefinance department reiterate instructions issued vide order No.109 that theexpenditure during the last month of the current financial year 2018-19 shallbe restricted to not more than 15 percent of the revised estimated 2018-19.”

A senior PWD officialinformed that all the chief engineers of Kashmir held a meeting with thedivisional commissioner Kashmir, urging him to take up the issue of contractorswith the chief secretary in order to get it addressed.

Greater Kashmir had last week reported that J&K Governmenthas an unpaid liability of Rs 719 crore towards the contractors on account ofdevelopment works carried by them across the state.

Public works departmentin this regards has sent a communiqué to finance department seeking immediaterelease of the funds.

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