Drivers and equipment operators under the payroll of prime contractor Transstroy on Thursday went on strike demanding payment of wages bringing concrete work to a grinding halt at the Polavaram dam site.
The workers placed obstacles across the internal roads and even prevented others from working. No concrete work could be done on the spillway and on the spill channel throughout the day because all the officials were at a meeting of the Polavaram Project Authority here.
Polavaram Chief Engineer V Ramesh Babu told The Hindu that Transstroy workers had not received wages for the past two months.
The contractor who owed the drivers and operators ₹56 lakh had requested the State government to make direct payments as it did to to the manual workers. The government reportedly declined the request on the grounds that the wages of the drivers, operators and other semi-skilled persons were much higher than that of the manual workers. Transstroy has been under pressure with more than half-a-dozen banks from which it borrowed initiating various types of action against it. Mr. Babu said talks were on to settle the dispute.
