To highlight problems being faced by contractors in the State, the Karnataka State Contractors’ Association will hold a State-level convention of contractors in February.
Addressing presspersons here recently, State general-secretary of the association D. Kempanna and other office-bearers of the association, said that while there were over 17,000 grade one and two contractors in the State, 265 contractors from other States were bagging 95 per cent of the works in the State.
They alleged that as tenders were being floated for package works combining works in various districts, local contractors were getting deprived of bagging them.
Mr. Kempanna alleged that some of the contractors were bagging contracts under the package system by submitting bogus documents and despite bringing the matter to the notice of the officials and the ministers, no action was being taken to address the issue.
Mr. Kempanna clarified that there was no truth in the allegation that works by local contractors get delayed.
He said in fact it was the package works executed by contractors from other States which were getting delayed due to slow implementation.
By awarding contracts to the contractors of other States, the State exchequer was also losing the revenue from the local contractors.
Moreover contractors bagging contractors were awarding sub-contracts to localites for which timely payment was not made, Mr. Kempanna said. He said that the State convention, which was initially planned for January, would be now be held in February in Bengaluru and the tentative date was February 15 and 16.
