MC contractors threaten strike over pending bills

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, January 13

The Municipal Corporation of Faridabad Contractors’ Association has threatened to go on an indefinite strike if the authorities failed to clear their pending bills within a week.

“We have decided to give one week’s time to the authorities to clear our pending payments and remove the additional condition attached with the payment of the running bills,’’ said Giriraj Singh, president of the association.

He said that the authorities had failed to clear bills to the tune of Rs 150 crore pertaining to the projects which had already been completed. He said the association was offended with the performa made mandatory by the MC authorities for claiming the release of the bills. He said though officials in a meeting held today assured to remove the condition of performa and release the pending payments, the association had decided to resort to an indefinite strike after a week if the demands were not met within the given time.

Blaming the officials concerned for the present standoff, he said the payment of the running bills (of ongoing works) had been made more tedious as the contractors were being asked to get signatures of the officials whose role in the work was negligible or not required.

He said the association had submitted a memorandum and had been staging a sit-in for the past many days, but none had come forward to resolve the issue perhaps due to the fact that there was no regular Commissioner of the MC. The present Commissioner, who has been holding the charge in addition to his designation of the Director General, Public Relations and Information, is available here on weekends only.

Naresh Shastri, president, Haryana Nagarpalika Karamchari Sangh, said the civic body looking after the civic needs of a population of over 16 lakh was faced with an acute shortage of ground staff and this had derailed the cleanliness work.