The Military Engineers Services Builders’ Association of India has threatened to stall work and go on indefinite strike unless the Defence Ministry clears its dues of approximately ₹1,600 crore.
The association functions under the MES and is responsible for construction and maintenance of basic but critical infrastructure like boundary walls, ammunition dumps, missile sheds, runways and helipads in forward areas.
“The issue of non-payment has been raised with the Officer Engineer-in-Chief, Minister of State for Defence, Defence Minister, and the PMO. However, the government hasn’t given us any relief till date,” Praveen Mahana, president of the association, said while addressing the media on Wednesday.
He said that no payments have been made in the past six months and the backlog goes up to two years. The association has about 20,000 contractors and employs about 50 lakh labourers.
The association has threatened that if payments are not made by October 28, the builders will be forced to stop all ongoing work.
Explaining the serious nature of the issue, one of contractor’s, who did not wish to be identified, said that as part of urgent measures by the Defence Ministry post Uri terror attack they were given contracts to construct boundary walls of military stations on a priority basis. “We completed them in four months, what would normally take one year. But after one month no payments were made,” he told The Hindu.
In a letter to the association dated October 24, the Director of Contracts in the MES accepted that delay in payments puts contractors in liquidity crunch but did not comment on clearing the dues.