THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Government contractors have raised an allegation that the State Government has not been taking proper action to sanction their bills which were pending for the last 10 months.
Kerala Government Contractors’ Association (KGCA) president Varghese Kannampally said that not a single bill of this year had been sanctioned yet.
“Bills to the tune of Rs 2,300 crore, from January to October, is still pending.
Though we are facing a tough time, the government seems reluctant in taking action to sanction our bills,” Varghese told Express.
He alleged that nowadays Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was not responding to their calls.
“We have not got any assurance regarding the case of pending bills.
As our calls are being rejected, we are trying to contact him over e-mails, but did not receive any response yet,” Varghese said.
The bills regarding the works on various projects for Public Works Department, irrigation and other sections are still pending.
The bills of November and December 2013 were pending till last month. “Bills of November and December 2013, which totalled Rs 330 crore, were sanctioned in October this year.
This was sanctioned after various levels of meetings held for nine months,” Varghese said.
He said that under this circumstance, the contractors would not take up any new works.
“Though we are ready to do patch works and urgent maintenance works, new works will not be taken until the government initiates steps to solve our problems,” Varghese Kannampally said.
KGCA Summit
Meanwhile, KGCA is organising a summit titled ‘Nirmithi Uchakodi’ in the wake of various issues faced by the contractors in the state. “In the summit, which is to be held at Vyttila in Ernakulam from Saturday to Monday, we will raise our demands including the opening of separate bank accounts for the contractors for cash transactions related to works,” Varghese said.
“Around 24 demands will be raised in the summit which will be inaugurated by PWD minister V K Ebrahim Kunju,” he said.