Claim govt holding payments for over a year
the goan I network
PANAJI
Speaking to media after their meeting in Panjim, the Forum said the payments had been pending for over a year. “There has been a need to come together because our bills have been pending with the government for over a year now. We were told that some payments would be made by Ganesh Chaturthi, but we have not received anything,” said Forum convener Jitesh Kamat.
He pointed out that despite CM’s assurance in the assembly, that Rs 200 crore would be paid to the contractors, they are yet to receive the money which has put them in an awkward situation vis-a-vis their suppliers, banks and financial institutions.
“If 1,000 contractors are direct dependents, there are around 10,000 to 15,000 indirect dependents including the labourers, their families, our families, sand suppliers, metal and others,” said Kamat.
The Forum has decided to issue memorandums to the Governor, Chief Minister, PWD minister and Chief secretary and will wait for a month before taking the next step. Emphasis was also raised on the government’s decision to help workers from the Western India Shipyard Ltd. (WISL) despite it being a private company as well as helping mining dependents.
“We want the same help. We are not against development and we won’t stop doing local projects but we need to repay our loans and other payments,” said Kamat. The PWD, they said, owed them the most amount followed by GSIDC, Municipalities and Water Resource Development (WRD) departments.
The Forum also pointed to a flaw in contracts. According to them, they were made to sign contracts that said payments would be made only when funds were available.
