Contractors Fail to Get Money for Assembly Poll Work

Hyderabad: Fifty contractors, who set up polling booths and provided other amenities during the November 2023 Assembly elections in the GHMC limits, have said that they have not been paid their bills of around 20 crore by the district election officer. This is the first instance of such an inordinate delay in payments for contractors executing the election job work, they said.

The contractors said they were doing the rounds of the offices of the Hyderabad district election office and the GHMC commissioner as well as the Chief Election Officer. As they have not received money for their work in the Assembly elections, the contractors are in a dilemma over participating in the online tender process for the upcoming job works for the Lok Sabha elections.

The district election office owes around Rs 20 crore to 50 contractors for distribution, receiving and counting centres, assure minimum facility, and basic minimum facility at 15 Assembly constituencies in the GHMC area.

Speaking to this newspaper, a member of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Contractors Association said, “We approached all the offices but we did not get a proper response. Even the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the State Election Commission have no clarity on the issue.