KOLLAM: All Kerala Government Contractors Association marched to PWD office in Kollam on Monday, the 90th day of their tender boycott protest. Sunny Chennikkara, who inaugurated the march and sit-in, demanded the immediate government intervention to resolve their issues. The contractors also want action against officials who had allegedly driven two of them to suicide. “The mandate to bring government contracts under GST landed contractors in trouble," he said. "In Kollam, the quarry operators are not willing to abide by the ceiling price set by the district administration.”
They warned of a total boycott of existing works from October 15 if their demands are not met. The district is facing acute shortage of construction materials owing to the ban on quarries that failed to secure environmental clearance. Only three are operational while nearly 300 remain shut. The district administration had given assurance to lift the ban by constituting a committee to study the environmental impact.
Two contractors committed suicide within a short span of two weeks after the denial of payments by the authorities. A. Augustine alias Benoy (43) of Mattathil House in Aryankavu, class A contractor with the works department, was found hanging inside his office in Aryankavu on August 15. Ten days later, Santhosh Kumar of Karavoor in Piravanthoor committed suicide. The contractors blame an assistant engineer with the LSGD for it.
