KL Report
Srinagar
Commissioner Secretary, R&B, Tanveer Jahan Saturday disputed that the state government owes pending bills worth Rs 700 crores to the Valley based contractors. While talking to a local news agency KNS, Jahan said that Chief Engineer and other concerned engineers have been tasked to collect the exact figures in this regard. “It is premature on part of contractors to claim that government owes them such an astronomical amount. It (government) will act accordingly once the exact figures are detailed,” Jahan said. Commenting on the boycott of tenders (beginning June 07 2013) by J&K Central Contractors Coordination Committee and the warning of stopping work on developmental works after June 20, 2013, Jahan said that talks are the best option to resolve the matter.
“We are ready to talk to the contractor’s. It will be better for them to sit on the table and discuss their problems. Boycotting tenders and stopping work on developmental works suits neither their (contractor’s) interests nor the infrastructural development here,’ Jahan said.
While defending the E-tendering process, Jahan said that the electronic mode has helped in generation of employment and easy accessibility of contracts to people living in far-off places. “The claims of contractors about E-tendering inflicting losses on them during harsh weather conditions are loose. There is nothing wrong with the electronic process as it has been of immense use since its implementation,” Jahan said. On the contractor’s demand of stopping the VDC bills, Jahan said that VDC has been set in motion following a change in the accounting system.
“The contractor’s apprehensions of VDC being detrimental to them would be cleared soon as we have sought modifications through the finance department into the bills,” Jahan concluded. Earlier alleging the government of being insensitive towards them.
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 ‘Secretariat Gheroa’ call had been given to protest the pending bills of Rs 700 crores the state government owes to JKCCCC. “The withholding of massive funds (owing to paucity of funds in Treasury department) is heavily telling upon us. We warn the government to release our pending bills immediately or all the developmental works would be boycotted after June 20 2013,” Dar said.
