A number of contractors protesting at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) headquarters seeking immediate payment of arrears due to them were detained by the police on Tuesday, while the Council meeting was in progress.
A member of the GHMC Contractors Association, Hanumanth Sagar said the contractors carrying out maintenance works in the city have not received payments for the past six months. The dues amounted to ₹800 crore just for maintenance works, and coupled with Housing, Horticulture and Electrical works, the same exceeded ₹1,500 crore.
“Whenever we ask for the dues, officials cite lack of funds. They have funds to pay for fancy projects such as SRDP and SNDP, but not for us who do the maintenance work,” Mr.Sagar said, while speaking to the media.
The contractors have been on strike for the past one week, stalling the works everywhere, association general secretary Surender Singh said.