Kothagudem: ‘Mana Ooru Mana Badi’ contractors protest over unpaid bills

Contractors in Kothagudem who completed works under Mana Ooru Mana Badi three years ago submitted a petition through Prajavani over pending bills. Despite uploading bills online, they remain unpaid. Contractors warned of hunger strikes if dues are not cleared soon

Kothagudem: Upset over delay in clearing pending bills, contractors who carried out works under the Mana Ooru Mana Badi programme in different villages in Kothagudem district sought recourse through ‘Prajavani’.

As many as 29 contractors submitted a petition to Additional Collector (Local Bodies) M Vidya Chandana here on Monday. They complained that even after three years had passed since the works—such as repairing toilets, dining halls, compound walls, school repairs, construction of additional rooms and others—were completed, the bills had not been cleared yet.

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Contractors K Satyanarayana, M Srinivas and Jakkula Sundar, who signed the petition, said they had taken loans on interest and pawned gold jewellery to complete the works. When the works were underway, engineers and officials did not let them sleep until they were completed.

But after the works were completed, the bills were submitted online but were not released. The State government was not paying heed to the sufferings of contractors, who were unable to pay interest on the loans they had taken. Hence, the petition was submitted at Prajavani, they said.

The contractors said that the Additional Collector responded positively and informed them that the officials had already sent the bills to the government, but they were not yet released. The Additional Collector assured the contractors that she would write a letter to the Collector regarding the bills.

They warned that if the bills were not cleared soon, their next course of action would be serious. The schools would be locked and hunger strikes would be staged along with their family members. The district ministers and the local MLAs should respond to the issue and take steps for clearance of the bills, they said.