Nagpur: In a bid to draw the attention of the civic administration, office-bearers of Nagpur Municipal Corporation Contractors’ Welfare Association (NMCCWA) sporting black-ribbons launched a sit-in protest on Tuesday outside mayor Nanda Jichkar’s office to demand release of their payment. The protest will be held every day from 4pm to 6pm until the dues are cleared.
The contractors submitted a memorandum to the mayor and municipal commissioner Virendra Singh. The association president Vijay Nayudu claimed the NMC owes over Rs200 crore to contractors for over a period of a year. “The NMC has also not refunded Rs100 crore security deposit (SD) which it had accepted from the contractors. Besides this, the civic body has also failed to refund Rs50 crore kept as earnest money deposit (EMD),” the NMCCWA memorandum stated.
The association claimed that mayor hasn’t responded to several requests made since Diwali last year for payment. According to Nayudu, “Assurances given to us have not been fulfilled. Even our bills and other related files are not being cleared.”
“No civil works will be carried out across the city as material suppliers have stopped supplies to the contractors on credit because of pending dues. Many contractors have borrowed money or obtained loans for admission of their children for higher education. Many could not even pay school and college fees of their children,” said association’s Prashant Thakre. It seems that the NMC has taken contractors for granted, the association alleged. The financial situation has become worst in the history of NMC.
Thakre said: “If the NMC doesn’t clear our dues, the NMCCWA will approach Union minister Nitin Gadkari.” Prakash Patpose, Sanjiv Choube, Rajkumar Bajaj, Matin Ahmed, Anant Jagnit, Narendra Hatwar, Vinod Madavi, Vinay Ghate, Vijay Waghade and others participated in today’s sit-in protest.
