Tura, April 27: The Overseer of a local contractor has filed a complaint with the Labour Department in Tura, West Garo Hills, over allegations of pending payments by the contractor for close to two years.
The complaint that was filed today, named Bimal Agarwala and Deepak Agarwala for apparently not paying an amount of Rs 4.35 lakhs due to labourers that they had hired for work of the construction of a road between Bokmagre petrol pump to Babupara (near the CS’s office) that was started in the month of October, 2020.
A total of 40 labourers, from Meghalaya and Assam, were involved in the project.
The complaint follows an FIR filed by the labourers who were apparently ‘cheated’ by the contractor named above along with the manager of Bimal Agarwala, Suresh Sharma.
“We worked day and night to complete the project by April 2021 as COVID restrictions began. For the work, a total of Rs 12.5 lakhs was supposed to be paid to us. However, we were only paid Rs 8.15 lakhs. The rest of the money (Rs 4.35 Lakhs) is still due to be cleared,” said the FIR by the labourers.
The compliant to the labour office was filed by the Overseer of the project, Hamidul Islam, who informed that he had tried numerous times to contact them for clearing the dues as he was being put under pressure by the labourers.
Despite repeated efforts they never cleared the payments due.
“I was once even called by Bimal Agarwala and threatened that action would be taken if the labourers filed a police complaint against them. I would also like to mention that I have paid Rs 30,000 from my own pocket to labourers for the road repair work on AMPT road. That too has not been returned and I was not paid for the supervision work I did,” said Hamidul in his complaint.
The Overseer had now sought action against the contractors named above as well as the manager of the construction firm, Suresh Sharma and sought the payment to labourers be cleared