The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) contractors who had been on agitation path for the last one week suspended their relay hunger strike on Monday.
Assurance
Municipal Commissioner Md. Abdul Azeem, who held parleys with the contractors on Sunday, assured them that the pending bills would be cleared in two months.
The contractors agreed to his proposal that the bills to the tune of Rs. 10 crore would be cleared every month.
It put an end to the tiff between the VMC and the contractors, who had been saying that the VMC had not cleared their bills to the tune of Rs. 20 crore.
This apart, the Corporation had to clear the bills pertaining to the works taken up under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) programme.
Pay Salaries
Their strike triggered protest from the VMC employees as well.
The employees demanded that their salaries be paid before the Corporation made any payment to the contractors.
The employees pointed out the VMC had diverted their pension contribution, PF etc to clear the contractors bills.
The contractors were up in arms against the Corporation following the death of a contractor.
The contractors are of the firm view that Kuncham Chinna Muttaiah breathed his last due to irresponsible behaviour of the officials.
The VMC had not cleared Rs. 11 lakh bills to him, they said.
Muttaiah would have undergone treatment for his brain tumour and survived had the VMC cleared the bills in time, they said.
The Andhra Pradesh Municipal Corporations Contractors Association even demanded the State Government to recall the Municipal Commissioner.
