Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Contractors, who are executing works for the UMC for years, raised the issue of pending bills with commissioner Anshul Gupta on Friday.

The contractors turned up in large numbers demanded the release of dues payment from the civic body immediately ahead of the Diwali festival.

They have threatened that they will leave the projects incomplete and refused to start work on new ones to protest against non-payment of bills amounting to approximately Rs 80 crore pending for over the last two years.

Their plight reflects the dire straits of the finances of the MP government. Nilesh Jain, a municipal contractor, said that due to financial challenges since lockdown, it has become difficult for them to continue to work. We completed the work assigned to us by borrowing money and material from suppliers in a hope that pending dues would be cleared but the UMC has failed to clear our dues.

Municipal commissioner Gupta on the other hand has assured to make arrangements for clearance of the pending bills soon. The officials have assured us that our dues will be cleared by Dusshera but now Diwali is around the corner and we are still grappling with managing our finances, said a contractor.

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