Some of them are small time contractors who do jobs between ₹30 lakh and ₹40 lakh. They cannot afford the debt burden.
A large question mark is on the repairs to roads due to recent rains as since two days ago, contractors in charge of various civil works for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) have been on strike.
The GHMC authoritatives confirm that the instant repair teams (IRTs) are active though contractors claim that this only concerns other than road repairs. This means there will be no asphalt patch works, they insist. Incessant rains over the last few days have caused extensive damage to city roads in different places which are now reduced to heaps especially in colony roads. Since May 18, civil maintenance workers including road constructing agents as well as drain workers have been on strike demanding clearance of pending dues.
As per information shared by GHMC Contractors Association with its 3,000 members, in total ₹1,350 crore worth payments are awaited by GHMC from May 2023.” Ramakrishna Reddy alleges: “During this year alone four contractors died; one suicide committed himself among them due to debt burden on him; very recently another contractor died with a heart stroke at GHMC premises while he had gone there regarding his dues.” “Many of us do some work amounting to about ₹30-40 lakhs. How can we survive if our payment is not made on time?” asks Ramakrishna Reddy, president of the association.
“Another contractor said that no money has been paid for the arrangements made for elections to Legislative Assembly six months ago”. About 50 contractors were involved in providing assured minimum facilities and basic minimum facilities at polling stations and also at arrangements at Distribution reception & counting centers during Assembly elections. “Still we have not yet received even a single paisa out of over ₹40 crores pending since then,” pointed out Rajesh Lahoti, Advisor to the association.
Partial advance payments are also only made for Parliamentary polls with the balance being pending. Mr. Reddy revealed that after a series of meetings, GHMC had paid ₹57 crore as one month’s dues on Monday.
According to D. Ronald Rose,” The corporation is still struggling financially and paying contractors in phases.” In addition to release from Monday till date, about ₹550 crores have been disbursed by GHMC. Furthermore, he stated that IRTs and monsoon emergency teams were present in field, thus no need for concern.
On the other hand, Mr. Reddy claimed that the Commissioner’s statement of ₹550 crore was for February and March months of 2022 and April 2023 payments which were on loans arranged by GHMC to apply as a surety on their behalf against their outstanding sums with an interest amounting to 8.4% payable by them contractors.” “GHMC avails loans at higher rates of interest for big ticket projects but we small time contractors have to pay interest on amount due from GHMC,” Mr. Reddy observed.
