Contractors' body stages protest in Dibrugarh

From a Correspondent

Dibrugarh, Sept 16: The Dibrugarh Water Resources Contractors Association (DWRCA) in protest against showing alleged disregard to the local contractors by the Water Resource department officials, who have been engaging contractors from outside the District, to carry out the departmental works ,  had staged a one-hour sit-in stir here on Thursday.

The chief demands of the members of DWRCA included binding steps must be taken for participation of contractors from Class -1 (A) to Class – 3 category, in E Tendering.  Secondly, steps should be taken for compulsory involvement of all grades of contractors in the SDRF scheme. Thirdly, it was demanded to fix a new work schedule rate for working convenience of the contractors. DWRCA members also claimed that as the present land royalty per 1cm has been fixed at Rs.30 while the rate of bolder has been fixed at Rs.130, the concerned department must initiate steps to lower the above fixed rates together by slashing of royalty money from the bills.

The members of the Association called upon the government for immediate release of the arrear money of Rs. 12 crore, allocated by the 11th and 12th Fince Commission and the F.M.P.

In addition to the above demands, the staging protestors insisted that primary preference must be given to the local contractors of the District, in all the official works of the Water Resource Department.  The members firmly demanded that the department must put an end to the process of oral tenders and that authorities must do away with the habit of gratifying their relatives, the press release stated.

In a press communiqué, the president and joint secretary of DWRCA, Parag Gogoi and Hemanta Gogoi, respectively, have threatened the department   and other concerned authorities to launch democratic protests in the coming days, if the long pending grievances of the DWRCA are not resolved at the earliest.