TURA: Contractors from Garo Hills working on various PMGSY projects have cited a number of reasons for their inability to complete their respective projects in time.
“Our troubles started in 2015 when the State Rural Roads Development Agency (SRRDA) wing of the PWD was in breach of contract by non-payment of running bills and the fragmentation of the payment of single bills into three or more parts and that too, only after the greasing of various palms in Shilllong. Whereas according to the contract agreement, the implementing agency is supposed to make payment every fifteen days as and when required by the contractors. Since there was delay in the payment of bill, there was delay in the works as well,” Vicky Rone N Sangma, the President of the All Garo Hills PMGSY Contractors’ Union said.
According to Sangma, the closure of quarries and crusher machines by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) also dealt a heavy blow to the contractors as materials being transported were seized by the police despite being informed of the time bound nature of work.
“In order to complete the work, some of our contractors applied for licenses to operate quarries and crushers, which is a herculean task. The first document required for the license is the NOC of the Nokma, then whether the quarry is owned or under lease and this document has to be registered at the Office of the Deputy Commissioner. After that, the NOCs of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, PWD, Department of Mining and the Pollution Control Board are required. Since this is routed through the various offices, it takes a minimum of six months to complete the procedure,” Sangma said.
“Apart from the time required, there is the cost involved in procuring this license. The services of a mining planner is required, the cost of which can escalate even up to rupees five lakhs. In addition to this is the cost required in the various offices and the daily costs of travelling all of which are not included in the DPR of the projects. Thus, obtaining this license is not feasible for all the contractors because the cost of the PMGSY projects is around rupees one to two crores per project,” he added.
Sangma said that even contractors who had their own quarries were also facing the same problem as materials extracted by them were seized and auctioned by the government resulting in cost escalation for the contractors.
Vice President of the union, Rakesh A Sangma said that works were also being delayed due to the heavy rains as working under the condition require double the cost, the expenditure for which is not covered in the Detailed Project Report (DPR).
“Despite all these problems, the implementing agency is pressurizing the contractors without knowing or understanding the ground reality. This shows that there is a lack of cooperation and communication between the various government agencies. Because of these pressures, there are instances of misunderstanding between the contractors and the implementing agency,” he added.
The union also questioned why a particular crusher belonging to one, Mahavir Prasad Agarwal who is undertaking the work on NH-51 from Rari to Berubari at Rongdenggre is being allowed to operate when all other quarries and crushers have been shut down.
“Why is special preference being given by the District Administration and the Forest Department to one individual? Is only the NH work considered as government work? Is PMGSY not a governmental scheme? Maybe special attention should be given as to why one individual is being given special treatment by the District Administration and the Forest Department while all others are kept running from pillar to post. The law should be the same for all without preferential treatment to some,” it said.
Another problem cited by the contractors are the bank loans for the purchase of machinery, wherein due to the standstill of work and due to which there is also a standstill in the bills, the loan amount is being compounded and the interest on these loans increasing.
Stating that work will remain at a standstill and the contractors would be left with no option but to abandon the PMGSY projects altogether if nothing was done about the problem, they suggested that the concerned department identify a quarry in each district to cater to these projects with strict guidelines to supply materials to PMGSY projects only.