Contractors protest against new policies of JMC

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, July 8: Contractors Association Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) here today staged a protest demonstration under the leadership of Vikrant Singh Bhadwal, association president.

Addressing protesters, Bhadwal expressed serious concern over several recently introduced policies and practices by JMC and termed them as anti-contractor in nature.

He said that such policies are causing unnecessary hardship to contractors and are adversely affecting the smooth and timely execution of public development works.

The Association leader said that such policies included three-year Defect Liability Period which is impractical while the new revised Earnest Money Deposit conditions are financially burdensome, particularly for the small and medium contractors.

The protesting contractors also claimed that JMC is inviting tenders without availability of funds due to which the contractors face uncertainty regarding payments as their payments are delayed.

They further stated that time allotted for the execution of works is inadequate in the new policies as there remain practical challenges like site conditions, adverse weather, shifting of public utilities and other unforeseen issues which were not taken into consideration, leading to unnecessary disputes and pressure on contractors.

The Contractors urged the JMC Commissioner to immediately review these policies in consultation with representatives of contractors' fraternity and restore a fair, transparent and practical system that promotes quality public works safeguarding the interests of all stakeholders.

Irfan Ahmed, vice president; Varinder Singh, vice president; Raman Sharma, general secretary; Sanjeev Sharma, spokesperson and Binder Pal Singh, secretary along with prominent contractors including Parvaiz Fazali, Rohit Bhadyal, Ravinder Singh Manhas, Rahul Kesar, Anil Dutta, Ramneek Singh, Ved Paul Devan, Bhagat Ram, Sushant Gupta, Aman Choudhary, Sanjay Singh, Vicky Gupta, Arish Malik and Vijay Mehra were also present in the protest.