Contractors seek support of former CM Yeddyurappa on pending bills

Bengaluru (IANS). The tug of war between the Congress government and the contractors in Karnataka is increasing every day. The contractors, who are on a warpath against the state government, on Wednesday met former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and requested him to extend his support to clear their pending bills.

A delegation of the state contractors union met Yediyurappa at his residence here and sought his cooperation and support in their agitation against Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.

The contractors allege that Shivkumar is demanding 15 per cent reduction in pending bills and have also complained to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot. He also challenged Shivakumar to take an oath before his family deity on the charges of commission.

According to KT Manjunath, president of the BBMP Contractors Association, several projects have been started and completed in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Limit and other assembly constituencies. But Shivakumar stopped paying the bills and has constituted a team to probe the matter and submit a report on the execution of the projects by the contractors, Manjunath said.

He said that the contractors are not in a position to wait till the reports come. Many of them have also written to the Prime Minister and the President to give them mercy killings instead of delaying their payments. Yediyurappa has not yet made any public statement in this regard.

Meanwhile, former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy said state contractors association president Kempanna, who had waged a war against the previous BJP government alleging that it demanded 40 per cent commission in all bills, was now saying that contractors would fall into the fire of a frying pan. went.

Kempanna had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard, while Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi had made it a big issue ahead of the assembly elections.

He said that the Congress leaders used the allegation of ’40 per cent commission’ as a weapon and came to power. Now you have left Kempanna. Meanwhile, reacting to the contractors meeting Yediyurappa, Shivakumar said ‘let them meet anyone…it cannot be stopped’.

He had said that the bill for works executed is Rs 25,000 crore, while the available funds are Rs 600 crore. Bills cannot be cleared in a day or two. We have received complaints that bills have been raised for bogus works and the government will pay pending bills only for works actually done.