The All Kerala Government Contractors Association will suspend all work and observe a token strike on March 4 demanding immediate government intervention to address the crisis facing the construction sector.
If the government failed to act even after the token strike, the contractors said they would be forced to boycott tenders and suspend work indefinitely after the General Elections. Addressing the media here on Tuesday, office-bearers of the association accused the government and officials of not making any intervention to resolve the crisis in the construction sector.
There was no response to multiple memorandums submitted to the Ministers of Finance, Public Works, and Local Self-Government. Though consensus was reached on many issues during discussions with the Public Works Minister, officials in the Finance department were putting up hurdles. It was not acceptable that the Finance department insisted on being privy to all decisions in which case there was no need for the Public Works department, said the office-bearers.
Revising the public works manual, doing away with the capability certificate at the time of renewal of government contractors’ licence, and prompt clearance of bills of completed projects were among the demands raised by the association.
Agreements for government projects are written on stamp papers worth 0.10% of the estimate. However, any revision of the estimate, though within the agreement, entails preparing fresh stamp paper for the revised estimate by the contractor, which is needless and should be done away with.
The three-fold increase in PWD licence and security deposit should be rolled back. New works should be tendered as per the Delhi Schedule of Rates. A clause should be included in the agreement against rate variations after tendering. Despite placing the demands before the ministers and chief engineers time and again, no corrective steps had been taken till date, the office-bearers alleged.
By offering labour contract societies a tender variation of 10%, the government was inflicting annual loss running into crores of rupees on the exchequer. Bills of completed works in three-tier panchayats were not being cleared on time. The bill discounting system (BDS) was not functioning properly. The Finance and Local Self-Government departments were not making any interventions despite many banks not allowing BDS. Small-time contractors were heading towards big crisis.
Association general secretary Sunny Chennikkara, working president M.K. Shajahan, executive secretary Joji Joseph, Ernakulam district president P.V. Stephen, and secretary C.P. Nasar were present.
