Not paid arrears, Himachal contractors boycott civil works, go on strike

Shimla, February 7

The contractors today registered their resentment against the failure of the government to resolve their issues by stopping all civil works and submitting representations to the concerned authorities.

Protest to continue till issues resolved

Even after a lapse of three months these issues have not been resolved. We feel that more representations will not yield results and have decided to take the drastic step to boycott tenders and negotiation and resort to stoppage of all civil works from February 7 to 22 till the issues are resolved. — Satish Vij, President, Contractors’ Welfare Association

The contractors under the aegis of Contractors Welfare Association Himachal Pradesh have given a call for total strike and boycott of all tenders of government works from February 7 to 22 as part of their agitation. The striking contractors submitted representations to the authorities concerned.

Dinesh Sharma, chairman of the Contractors Welfare Association Himachal Pradesh, and president Satish Vij, said the contractors across the state were facing acute financial crisis as they had not been given payments by the government after Diwali last.

“The transit passes for minor minerals (stone, gatka, grit, sand etc.) have been made mandatory and material with transit passes is not available in sufficient quantities to execute the works of the state,” they lamented.

Vij added that the reimbursement of GST on agreements entered into before July 2017 (implementation of GST) is also pending. He said contractors were instrumental in the development works of the state and despite representing these issues time and again before the Chief Minister, Principal Secretary (PWD) and Engineer-in-Chief, the issue remained unresolved.

“Even after a lapse of three months these issues have not been resolved and since we feel that more representations will not yield results we have decided to take the drastic step to boycott tenders and negotiation and resort to stoppage of all civil works from February 7 to 22 till the issues are resolved,” Vij said.

The association said this stoppage of work, boycott of tenders/negotiation and peaceful agitation would continue till all issues and problems are addressed.