Date:02/07/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/02/stories/2007070251920500.htm

Kerala - Palakkad

Contractors stop taking work

Staff Reporter

PALAKKAD: Government contractors stopped taking new works from Sunday in protest against the failure of the Government to pay their arrears amounting to Rs.1,200 crore.

All Kerala Government Contractors Association president K.C. John and secretary V. Haridas said the LDF had promised to clear the long-pending dues when they returned to power last year. Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac had promised the association that the Government would clear the arrears in instalments. But the Government was following a policy of ‘no payment’ to the Government contractors, they alleged.

They said the construction sector in the State was in a serious crisis owing to the rise in prices of almost all construction materials. The contractors would not take Government contracts in future if their arrears were not cleared, they said.