Contractors' body demands release of arrear money

From a Correspondent

DIBRUGARH, November 11: The Dibrugarh Water Resources Contractors Association (DWRCA), to exhibit its vehement protest against the alleged indifferent attitude of the State Government to  execute effective steps for resolving the persistent problems of the registered contractors of Dibrugarh region, had staged protest and dhar in front of the DC office on Thursday.

The  members of DWRCA  apprised Chief Minister Sarbanda Sonowal of their  fincial instability on account of non-payment of arrear money which has not been released yet in spite of repeated demands being placed through the water resources department.  For better understanding of the sensitive ture of the matter, the members of DWRCA submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Sarbanda Sonowal  for seeking  his intervention in the issue for release of the  arrear money  at the earliest.

As stated in the memorandum, the contractors’ body called upon the government to take steps for inclusion of the mes of all classes of registered and local contractors of Dibrugarh region in the tendering process. Moreover, necessary action should be taken by the government to dissolve all the big e- tendering packages.

The memorandum further stated that as per the directives  of Letter No. WR(G)20/2000/265 issued  by the Secretary of Water Resource Department on May 30, 2015 , appropriate steps must be taken for implementation of the group classification process of distribution of contractual works for the water resource  department contractors for e- tendering such as  for Class - 3 Contractors  Rs 5,00,000( five lakhs) ; for  Class- 2 Contractors  Rs. 50,00,000 (fifty lakhs) ; for Class - 1’C’  Rs 75,00,000 ( seventy lakhs)  to Rs 1,00,00,000 (one crore)  ; for Class -1’B’  Rs 1,00,00,000 ( one crore) and for Class- 1 ‘A’ contractors should be unlimited.

DWRCA through the memorandum urged upon Sonowal to sanction the release of the arrear money under FMP together with the payment of all arrear money of 2014-15  at the earliest.

Action has also been sought against the fincial and administrative discrepancies being carried out by the Executive Engineer of  Dibrugarh Water Resource Department, who as alleged by the DWRC members,  favoured chosen contractors by ignoring the interest of local contractors  in the allocation of tenders. It is further alleged that the incumbent  executive engineer now promoted to the chair of Superintendent Engineer, has been holding both the posts simultaneously and has been acting arbitrarily against the   interest of the aggrieved contractors who are facing a hard time due to non-payment of their arrear money. In a press communique, the president and secretary of DWRCA , Porag Gogoi and Chao Hemanta Gogoi respectively requested Sonowal to implement early and effective steps  to fulfill their demands, including release of the arrear money to the contractors.