Mumbai, Feb 5 (PTI) Two government contractor organisations have urged the Maharashtra government to enact a legislation by the end of February to safeguard them against alleged threats, extortion attempts and job interruptions stemming from political disputes, failing which they may halt work on various projects.
The two organisations – Maharashtra State Contractors Association (MSCA) and State Engineers Association (SEA) – wrote these concerns and requests to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar in a letter dated February 3.
The letter claimed, “The rival political groups in every district use force to stop the ongoing work, including the use of physical violence and extortion from contractors. This is taking place in every district of the state.” “If no solution is found to this challenge, we will not continue our work from February-end,” the associations said in the latter.
The ruling MLAs, MPs and other elected representatives have managed to get sanction for developmental works of huge amounts in the state. While executing it, political groups who are in the opposition are ensuring that the works are stopped, they claimed.
“To do this, these groups are ganging up against the contractors and labourers, and abusing as well as beating them to stop the work,” it the letter alleged.
Milind Bhosle, president of both the associations, said the government has sanctioned developmental works in various departments and political rivalry is causing a major damage and delay to the execution of these projects.
“The state government has issued work orders to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore, but the contractors at the local level are facing problems, like some political groups either asking us to stop the work using force or causing hurdles in completion,” he claimed. PTI ND SKL GK
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