Bills not cleared, Himachal contractors not to cooperate with PWD

Lalit Mohan

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Dharamsala, February 3

The Contractor Welfare Association of Himachal has decided not to cooperate with the state Public Works Department (PWD), as the government has not been able to resolve the issue of non-payment of bills to them for not submitting X forms for mined material.

The contractors said that from today, they stopped providing machines to the PWD for clearing snow in various parts of the state. They would also not participate in the tenders of government departments till the issue was resolved. They threatened to completely stop the work on development projects of the state government from February 7.

Stop providing machines for clearing snow

• Contractors stop supplying machines for clearing snow
• They threaten to stop work on projects from February 7
• PWD has withheld Rs200 cr bills for non-submission of X forms
• Assurances by Chief Minister have not yielded results
• Bills not cleared on High Court orders, says govt

Satish Kumar Vij, president of the Contractor Welfare Association of Himachal, told The Tribune that the PWD alone had withheld bills worth Rs 200 crore of the contractors as many of them had not submitted X form or M form issued by the Mining Department. “We have held many meetings with Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur over the issue in the past two months. Every time he assured us that the matter will be resolved but nothing happened. In such a situation, we have decided not to cooperate with the government,” he said.

The PWD and other government departments, on the direction of the Himachal High Court, have made it mandatory for the contractors to submit X forms for the clearance of their bills. The Mining Department issues X forms to validate that the sand and gravel used in the construction work was mined legally. The contractors, however, alleged that the stone crusher owners do not give them X forms.

Navneet Thakur, president of the Kangra Chamba Contractors Association, said that the contractors had been made a scapegoat. “It is the duty of the Mining Department and the police to check illegal mining. We purchase material from stone crusher owners, pay GST on it and submit bills to the department for payment. Why the contractors are being asked to ensure that the mined material is legal when it is the duty of the Mining Department to do so,” he added.

The contractors’ issue was also discussed during the winter session of the Himachal Assembly. Congress MLA from Dalhousie Asha Kumari took up the cause of the contractors. She said that in districts such as Chamba where there were a very few sand or gravel queries, the contractors were facing additional problems. They had to source material from Punjab and the stone crusher owners there did not issue X forms to them,” she had said.