KL Report
SRINAGAR
To protest government’s apathy towards Contractors, Valley based Contractors under the banner of Jammu and Kashmir Central Contractors Coordination Committee (JKCCCC), began their 36 hours long hunger Strike today at TRC ground.
Pertinently the contractors have been demanding the release of pending bills worth seven hundred corers. JKCCCC has held several demonstrations to protests their demand earlier as well.
Mean while Genreal Secretary JKCCCC Farooq Ahmmed Dar lamented that ‘injustice’, is being meted out to the more than 70,000 Valley based contractors. He said that the ‘Hunger Strike’ call had been given to protest against the pending bills of Rs 700 crores the state government owes to contractors, double taxation tendering and WDC bill System. “The withholding of massive funds is heavily telling upon us.”
Blaming state government for their hunger strike, Dar said, “We tried our level best to solve the matter in a peaceful manner but the insensitive attitude of the state government towards our grievances left us no option than to start this hunger strike.”
“In March, we missed out on tenders worth Rs 30 crores due to the bad situation here as internet services were snapped by the establishment in Valley,” Dar said. He also alleged that it is the biased attitude of planning commission of India to Kashmir that has brought such crises to the contractors of the valley.
“The Central Government’s refusal to issue Rs 1800 crore as developmental funds for this planning year have exposed the central government attitude towards the development work. We warn the government to release our pending bills immediately or all the developmental works would be boycotted after June 20 2013,” Dar said.
