Members of Greater Visakha Municipal Corporation Contractors’ Association have decided to go on strike from December 18 bringing to a halt all works alleging inordinate delay in payment of bills, deduction of GST, not getting free supply of sand and double deduction of EMD on SC Sub Plan and Special Development Fund works.
Association president T.Veera Reddy and general secretary Gompa Chandra Mouli told reporters here that key issues in the minutes of meeting held with the Commissioner on October 4 were not implemented.
Though the Municipal Commissioner was endeavouring to sort out issues and holding several meetings lack of coordination among officials was creating problems, they said.
They said a total of 27.5 % -- 20 % GST and 7.5 % -- additional security deposit- of the bill amount was being deducted and bills since the introduction of GST remain to be paid and it was hitting contractors hard.
Mr. Mouli said of the two ramps allotted to them in Srikakulam district only one was opened. However, the Singur ramp closed a month ago. They sought alternative arrangements stating that they had to buy sand at three time the cost decided by the government.
Vice-president of the association Randhi Sadhu Rao said EMDs for works completed were given after two years but even six months after approval they were not getting it. The returned EMD was like capital for them.
Another vice-president G. Veerabhadra Rao said unless timely payments were made it was difficult to continue working paying labourers and pending deposits were worth ₹ 20 crore.
They said with 350 contractors and about ₹ 50 crore worth of works going on several contractors had to get lakhs of rupees from the corporation. They urged the Municipal Commissioner to launch a special drive to address their issues.
Convener Rajana Venkatarao and organising secretary S. Vara Prasad were present.
