GHMC contractors to halt works from December 21

Hyderabad: Claiming that around various works worth Rs 300 crore were taken up during the lockdown and that the arrears of the same are not yet paid by the GHMC, contractors have threatened to stop all kinds of works from December 21.

The GHMC Contractors Association held that for the past 5 months, the GHMC failed to clear their bills and due to which they were facing hardships. Irregular payment for the works taken up during Lockdown period was taking toll. The issue was also taken to the notice of GHMC Commissioner D S Lokesh Kumar.

In their representation, he cautioned that if the payments were not made by December 20, the association members would stop all ongoing works from the next day.

In the letter submitted to Commissioner, they submitted that they were unable to procure raw materials due to funds crunch. Speaking to The Hans India, R Hanumanth Sagar, General Secretary of Contractors Association, said that the payment of civil works remained pending from August, which amounts to about Rs 300 crore. "If the bills are not released, dealers of cement, steel, hardware, sanitary, paints and electrical appliances etc would stop supplying material. Also, we have to pay more than 50,000 laborers payment across the city," he explained.

Sagar wondered if there was any financial crunch, how the GHMC was able to clear bills regularly for CRMP (Comprehensive Road Maintenance Programme) & SRDP (Strategic Road Development Plan) works.

Syed Mujeeb, a contractor, said that interest on the loans taken up from different sources was going up, but there was no relief from the civic body. The interest will double soon and small contractors like us will incur losses. We are facing hardships as the bills are not cleared for five months," he added.