Vadodara: Contractors who take up development and maintenance work for the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) made yet another representation over delay in due payments by the civic body. They have been made to wait for over a month for their payments.
The contractors working for the VMC had earlier raised the issue with the civic body in the month of February. Sources said that the situation had eased slightly since then, but had not normalised completely. The contractors on Tuesday met VMC standing committee chairperson Dr Jigisha Sheth demanding that their bills be settled at the earliest.
According to sources in the VMC, contractors’ were usually made payments in about a week’s time if the bills were in order. But since the end of last year, the process has been thrown out of gear due to paucity of funds at the civic body.
The contractors alleged that, the bills were not even verified in a week’s time now. They believe that the delay was a tactics to hold back payments for a few more days. With payments drying up, they claim to be facing difficulties.
The contractors claimed that earlier the VMC took at the most one month to make payments, but it is now taking two to three months. In the past, the contractors have expressed inability to continue works if payments were not released.
VMC officials said that there was some financial strain on the civic body, but it would be taken care of once the grant for primary education was received. The grant is overdue from the state government.
The opposition has been targeting the ruling BJP in the civic body over the issue and has said that it needs to come up with a white paper on its finances. The VMC has not heeded to the demand so far.
