Bengaluru: Civil contractors Thursday said they will stop all ongoing works from March 5 if the state govt does not assure them of settling pending bills amounting to Rs 37,370 crore. Karnataka State Contractors’ Association president R Manjunath reiterated allegations of a worsening kickback culture in the system and said smaller local contractors were being sidelined due to the continuation of the ‘package’ system.“Our past president, D Kempanna, has alleged during the previous BJP govt that contractors were compelled to pay 40% kickbacks, but it has gone up beyond it. The package system (bunching multiple works into one contract) is continuing because of which bigger contractors from outside Karnataka are benefiting at the cost of smaller local contractors. The govt must resolve these issues and come up with a plan to settle our pending bills before March 5 failing which we stop all work and go on strike,” Manjunath said.With pending bills pegged at Rs 37,370 crore, he suggested the govt could clear payments in phases if it is unable to release the entire amount at one go. Manjunath alleged CM Siddaramaiah had fixed meetings with the association’s office-bearers but cancelled them without informing them or giving reasons. He claimed the govt failed to implement its decision to bear the cost difference after the tax rate rose to 12% under GST from 4% in the VAT regime, noting that neighbouring states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra implemented it five years ago.He said the present govt had failed to follow the practice of releasing partial payments during festivals such as Gowri-Ganesha, Dasara and Deepavali.Manjunath claimed that barring the public works department (PWD), BBMP (now Greater Bengaluru Authority) and the engineering division of the panchayat raj department, no department had taken steps to settle pending dues. He said only PWD and BBMP were following seniority in clearing payments. He levelled serious allegations against the urban development department, accusing it of being controlled by private individuals and mediators and said the association had written separately to UDD minister Byrathi Suresh.“With pain we are mentioning that the mediators are audaciously operating from their private offices controlling the UDD. The discrepancies in the department have worsened from the previous govt,” Manjunath said.GFXDepartment-wise pending bills (Rs crore)DepartmentPending billsPWD8,370Water resources13,000RDPR3,800Minor irrigation3,000UDD2,000Housing2,600Labour2,000BBMP2,600Eom
