Srinagar ,March 27: Questioning the government’s announcement to open the doors of construction and development in the valley, contractors said that the pending liabilities were not paid even at the end of the financial year. Addressing a press conference at his office in Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Dar, general secretary of the Central Contractors Coordination Committee, expressed outrage that the government had forgotten contractors even at the end of the financial year after the budget.
He said ” in the first Government expressed silence in the budget on the payment of dues and now at the end of the financial year the same approach was adopted”.
Dar said that even during Covid 19 Period , contractors risked their lives to carry out emergency work, but the government forgot about them. He said that former advisor KK Sharma had asked all the chief engineers for a list and details of general liabilities , however, it is learned that few chief engineers saw only a Macadam and nothing else on the ground. Dar said that while Rs 900 crore was reportedly released on Macadam, others were forgotten. He said that in fact it seems that the former engineers conspired and kept a close eye on Macadam and forgot about the small contractors.
General Secretary of the JKCCCC, who is also the co-chairman of the Kashmir Economic Alliance said that the engineers who had injustice with small contractors would be exposed. Meanwhile, Dar also expressed concern over the unavailability of construction materials and the alarming increase. He said that the ban on mining should be lifted immediately. He said that due to non-availability of materials, construction of residential houses by the common poor has become a dream while work on government projects has been slow.Secretary JKCCCC Arshid Ahmed Dar,senior Leaders Umer Javid and Ishfaq Khan were also present in the press confrence.