Bengaluru, Jan 30: In 2023, the Congress raided high on an election campaign called `Pay-CM', after the Contractors' Association in Karnataka alleged that the then BJP government headed by Basavaraj Bommai was receiving 40% bribe on all contracts in the State.
Payment crisis
However, the same allegations have come back to haunt the present Congress government, where the same Contractors' Association is alleging that the present dispensation was more corrupt and was overdue to the contractors to the tune of around ₹ 38,000 crore.
The Contractors' Association has threatened to stop all the ongoing government works and hold a huge protest rally on February 5, demanding payment to the contractors.
The Contractors' Association President R Manjunath said that the situation of contractors in the State was miserable and the government had taken the contractors for granted. At the moment, the government has to pay ₹ 37370 crore to the contractors for the works that have been executed. The Association had decided to write letters to LOP Rahul Gandhi, AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge and the Governor regarding this, he said.
Protest threat
Stating that the middlemen were ruling the roost of the government contracts, they are demanding commission in advance. However, when it comes to the payment, no one will take the responsibility. ``We did not ask the government to clear all the money in one go. We requested them to release in installments, but no step has been taken in this regard,'' he said.
Taking a dig at the way the tenders were being floated, Association Working President Jagannath Shegji said that, in the Urban Development Department, the middlemen would decide who should participate in the tender.
Middlemen role
``The middlemen have their own office in Rajajinagar. They will hold a meeting and decide on who should get the contract. Then, they will call the engineers and instruct them to award the tenders to the contractors of their choices. If anyone else tries to participate in the tender process, they will be asked to withdraw their bids,'' he said.
Urban Development Minister Byrathi Suresh said that the allegations were baseless. ``How can anyone interfere in the tender process, which is floated as per the Transparency Act? Everything will be online and transparent,'' he added,
According to the contractors, the government is overdue to the tune of ₹ 13,000 crore in the Water Resource Department, while PWD is overdue to the tune of₹ 8370 crore. The other departments include Rural Development (₹ 3800 crore), Minor Irrigation (₹ 3000 crore), Urban Development (₹2000 crore), Housing and Wakf (₹ 2600 crore), Labour Department (₹ 2000 crore) and GBA (₹ 2600 crore).
Guarantee Schemes Overdue:
Meanwhile, the Congress government in Karnataka is also overdue with respect to the payment of Guarantee Schemes, which was part of its election manifesto.
The `Gruha Lakshmi' scheme, where the government directly transfers ₹ 2000 to all the women in the State has been pending for the last two months. Every month, the government needs ₹ 2500 crore to pay over 1.25 crore beneficiaries.
Now, the government has also defaulted on paying ₹ 657 crore for Anna Bhagya scheme, which promises to give 10 kg rice to all BPL families in the state. Since the availability of rice was scarce, the government had decided to distribute 5 kg rice and ₹ 170 to the beneficiaries of the scheme. This amount, which comes up to ₹ 657 crore per month has not been releasedd.
