Karnataka: Contractors plan protest on budget day over pending bills

Hubballi: When Chief Minister Siddaramaiah presents the state budget for the record 17th time on March 6, contractors across the state have planned to stop government works being executed by them for a day and stage a symbolic protest at Freedom Park in Bengaluru, demanding the release of over Rs 37,000 crore pending bills from the government.

Deciding to go on a one-day protest, the Karnataka State Contractors’ Association has urged the chief minister to convene an official meeting and make an announcement to pay the contractors’ bills pending for three years.

“Our memoranda have not received a satisfactory response, and the financial condition of contractors is very poor due to non-payment of bills. Therefore, staging a protest has become inevitable. If the bills are not cleared, all the works would be stopped indefinitely from April,” the association president R Manjunath said.

Among the pending contractors’ bills, Rs 13,000 crore is from major irrigation department, Rs 8,000 crore is from public works department,
Rs 3,800 crore from rural development and panchayat raj department, Rs 3,000 crore is from minor irrigation department, Rs 2,600 crore from housing and wakf department, Rs 2,000 crore from urban development department,
Rs 2,000 from labour department, and Rs 1,600 crore from BBMP, he told reporters in the city on Thursday.

“The association’s fight during the previous government, when Kempanna was the president, helped a little for the present government to come to power. Siddaramaiah had assured to stop the package tender and commission menace. But those are still going on. Match-fixing is going on in the Cabinet to approve package tenders, especially related to urban development and labour departments, and contractors from other states are bagging tenders,” Manjunath charged.

Small and medium contractors affected

Giving works to Nirmiti Kendra and the land army is also badly affecting small and medium contractors, he said.

Some departments do not follow the seniority list to pay contractors’ bills, but only powerful contractors are getting their bills cleared.

In states like Kerala, there is a system of making payments immediately after six months, Manjunath said, adding that the pending contractors’ bills in Dharwad district alone are around Rs 1,400 crore.

He also held a meeting with the office-bearers of the Dharwad District Contractors’ Association, as a preparation for the protest. 

M S Sankagoudashani, Suresh Bhumaraddi, B C Dinesh, and others were
present.