KOCHI: The pre-monsoon cleaning work, vital for the city to escape flooding, will be stalled completely with the Kochi Corporation Contractors’ Association (KCCA) deciding to intensify their ongoing indefinite strike from Sunday onwards.
The KCCA’s move to stop all the work came after a negotiation talk with Mayor Soumini Jain at her chamber on Saturday failed to reach a consensus. Though the KCCA was on a strike from April 13 in protest against the non-payment of bills worth around Rs 85 crore, they allowed their workers to carry out the pre-monsoon cleaning drive.
Since the canals and drains are clogged with silt, the delay in starting the pre-monsoon cleaning would deteriorate the situation. “Our demand was to clear the arrear amount from January 2017 to December 2017, but the Mayor was not ready to sanction it. She had only agreed to sanction the arrears of the first three months. Arrears worth Rs 45 crore have been pending since 2017 and Rs 40 crore is pending for works done last year. We have taken loans for completing the work. The fund they agreed to sanction is insufficient to meet our crisis,” said M R Binu, president of KCCA.
He said the work would resume only after the arrears are cleared. “We don’t have any option except stopping all the work initiated under the annual plan fund works and AMRUT. Though we were on a strike these days, we carried out some de-silting jobs where there is a possibility of flooding in the monsoon. But with the Mayor turning down our request, we decided not to carry out any work in this monsoon. Our strike will continue until they reach a decision,” he added.
According to the association, around 240 contractors who have undertaken the contract works are on the verge of bank recovery. “What is the point in paying all the profit to the banks and other financial institutions? We are not asking them to spend the whole arrear of Rs 85 crore. We are asking them to sanction a partial amount. We will intensify the protest in coming days,” said Binu.
However, Jain said the contractors are putting pressure on the Corporation.“The Corporation has several other expenses to take care of. We don’t have that much funds to sanction. The fund can’t be sanctioned at a single stretch. These are all the pressure tactics of the contractors. This council has sanctioned Rs 157 crore in three years time. No other council has done like this. We are ready to pay Rs 11 crore at the very earliest,” said the Mayor.
Though the KCCA was on a strike from April 13 in protest against the non-payment of bills worth around Rs 85 crore, they allowed their workers to carry out the pre-monsoon cleaning drive
Arrears worth Rs 45 crore have been pending since 2017 and Rs 40 crore is pending for works done last year