Kochi Corporation contractors warn strike over pending payments

KOCHI: The Kochi Corporation’s Contractors’ Association has threatened to launch an agitation over non-payment of dues for the civil works carried out in last 21 months. They said though they submitted a memorandum to Mayor Soumini Jain seeking immediate measures to clear bills, nothing had happened. The civic body owes more than Rs 30 crore to some 200 contractors.

“Bills from July 2014 are pending for clearance. It is because of the financial mismanagement of the corporation that it failed to pay the dues. When contractors are being blamed for shoddy works, the role of corruption and poor fiscal management of the civic authorities for it is often get ignored,” said T.M. Saidu Kunju, its president.

The contractors will be organizing a protest meeting in front of the Corporation office on Wednesday. “If no step is taken to resolve the issue, we will be forced to stop works and boycott tendering. The majority of the contractors are not financially sound and facing action from financial institutions from where they had taken loans to execute works. We are not ready to bear the brunt of the civic body’s failure in fiscal management.”

Though the local body has given Rs  18 crore to the contractors, it was not sufficient and could clear bills for four months only. Despite having surplus funds in its exchequer, the civic body is not willing to clear the bills. Bills are not due beyond six months in any other urban local body in the state, he said. If they resort to strong protest, all the civil works will be hit leaving roads potholed and damaged during monsoon.