Dasara contractors demand payment of pending dues

Mysuru: Amid growing clamour for a grand celebration of the Mysuru Dasara or the Naada Habba, which stakeholders are convinced will help revive the local economy that has suffered immensely owing to the Covid-19 crisis, a recurrent theme of the annual fete has raised its head: Pending dues to contractors for services in the last year’s celebrations. Over the years, the delay in issuance of payment to contractors has become a ritual, with most traders complaining of not receiving money till the start of the next year’s celebrations. Furthermore, some of them have complained of their dues not being settled for four years.
Consequently, many contractors have decided not to participate in the tender process this year unless the government settles all the dues.
One of the contractors who is awaiting dues from the government told TOI, “I have not been paid for the work that I did in 2016, nor have I been compensated for projects undertaken in 2018. Now, with the Covid-19 crisis, we are hardly receiving any orders. Should the government delay releasing the money, we will be in trouble. We have appealed to all the officials and ministers, but the response has not been encouraging.”
Mysuru City Corporation Contractors’ Association president C Venkatappa said that the government cumulatively owed Rs 5.3 crore to those who had offered services during the Naada Habba fete. Venkatappa too lamented the lack of response to their repeated pleas for payment of pending dues. “In February, we met senior officials in Bengaluru, who assured us of disbursing the dues, but all our bills are stuck owing to the pandemic,” he said.
Venkatappa questioned the failure of the officials to release the dues despite the government earmarking surplus funds for the Dasara celebrations last year.
Although senior officials in the district administration were not available for comment on the issue, tourism minister CT Ravi clarified that there were no pending dues to contractors as far as his department was concerned.