A delegation of Karnataka Contractors Association met CM Siddaramaiah over the issue of clearance of pending bills. (Image: News18)
It was D Kempanna, president of the Karnataka Contractors’ Association, who accused the BJP government of ’40 per cent commission’, which became an election slogan for the Congress in the state.
A day after the head of the Karnataka Contractors Association met Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s contractors’ body wrote to administrative head Tushar Girinath, seeking clearance of pending bills for construction works by June 5.
It was D Kempanna, president of the Karnataka Contractors Association, who leveled the ’40 per cent commission’ charge against the BJP government, which became an election slogan for the Congress in the state. Kempanna had alleged that the previous government gave shelter to corrupt officials and demanded 40 per cent commission every time the contractors cleared pending bills related to construction works.
“Yes, BBMP Contractors Association has written to the BBMP chief and also appealed to the CM to ensure that BBMP releases the payment of bills related to construction works. The association has said that bills worth Rs 2,500 crore, from 2021, are pending for clearance by the civic body. CM has asked for time to review the pending bills. Hopefully, they will clear soon,” Kempanna told News18,
He said: “I also wanted to speak about the pending bills of over Rs 22,000 crore from various government departments, including Public Works, Irrigation and BBMP, which I mentioned when the BJP was in power. The CM has assured us that he will hold a separate meeting soon to discuss all this in detail.”
Talking about the alleged death by suicide of Santosh Patil, a contractor, in April 2022 – which forced the then rural development and panchayat raj minister K Eshwarappa to resign – Kempanna said, “We will also conduct a judicial inquiry into Santosh Will strongly demand Patil’s suicide case.
According to the sources of the delegation that met the Chief Minister, in the next meeting the contractors will put forward some demands or suggestions on which the Congress government should work for the welfare of the contractors of the state.
Here are the possible demands that are likely to be discussed:
- Before 2019, there was no Goods and Services Tax. This should be implemented now because whenever tenders are floated, bribes are taken and GST only adds to the woes of contractors.
- The state requires an overhaul of the tender allocation process or a provision where a transparent system for tenders and bill payments is in place; This will not cause financial crisis to the contractors.
- construction works package systems, where different works are linked together; This only benefits the contractors from outside the state and not the contractors from Karnataka.
- A high-level inquiry should be conducted into the past irregularities in various urban departments.