The Undivided Dakshina Kannada District PWD Contractors’ Association, Mangalore has warned of withholding all the construction work and not taking part in the tender process by the Public Works Department due to the delay in the payment of bills.
Speaking to media persons on Saturday, Association Dakshina Kannada district President Radhakrishna Nayak complained that bill amount of Rs 90 crore of the completed works to be paid to the contractors is pending in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts from last two years. A sum of Rs 53 crore bill amount is pending to be paid to the contractors in Udupi district while Rs 37 crore is pending in Dakshina Kannada district. With the delay in the payment of bills, the contractors are unwilling to take the risk of accepting other works under the PWD, he said.
Placing forth a few demands before the PWD, Nayak on behalf of the contractors warned of not taking up the pothole filling work too, if the PWD fails to meet their demands within 10 days. The department should initiate the developmental work immediately after the government releases fund for the projects announced in the annual budget. The delay in sanctioning work by the PWD leads to the delay in implementation, said the Association President.
Some of the other demands include, calling the tender and handing over the work order to the contractors soon after the sanctioned work receives administrative approval, not to use pressurising tactics to perform the work without any documents, sort out the discrimination followed in dividing the contract period and bill amount among others.
Udupi District Association President Shivaram Shetty said that the contractors are at a great loss due to the delay in receiving the bill amounts. “We are going bankrupt paying the interest rates to the bank. Unlike the Kerala government, Karnataka government does not even refund us the interest amount for delay in payment,” he said.
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks