Kerala - Pathanamthitta   

Government contractors threaten to stop work

Staff Reporter

Plea to clear arrears before Onam

PATHANAMTHITTA: The zonal meet of the All Kerala Government Contractors’ Association (KGCA) held at Thiruvalla on Saturday decided to stop all works undertaken by them, if the Government failed to clear their arrears totalling Rs.851 crore before Onam.

Association leaders G. Yathish, Jose Philip, G. Sundaresan and P. Narayanan Nair, said the inordinate delay in payments for the work done landed the contractors in acute financial crunch. It was forcing them not to undertake any more work, including the road repair prior to the forthcoming Sabarimala pilgrim season.

The contractors and their workers would march to the residences of Ministers and move the Kerala High Court, if the Government failed to pay their arrears before Onam, they said.

Delegates from Thiruvananthapurm, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Kottayam attended the zonal meet. Association secretary P. Viswanathan inaugurated the meeting.

The meeting decided to stage a dharna in front of the Civil Station in Pathanamthitta on July 26 to press their demands.

Mr. Jose Philip and Mr. Sundaresan said there was no point in blaming the contactors for the inferior quality of various road repair works. According to them, corruption, political compulsions, use of raw materials of inferior quality, unscientific estimate-preparation without considering the current market price of raw materials and labour charge and delayed payments to the contractors were all having their negative impact on the quality of work.

Mr Sundaresan said the association was for a corruption-free environment to ensure quality work. Absence of drainages resulted in water-logging and damage to roads. Lack of coordination among different departments too contributed to the bad state of many roads in the State, they added.

Association office-bearers Sony Mathew, P.T. Kurien and Jayaprakash, also spoke.

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