Contractors demand immediate clearance of pending bills

BBMP Contractors' Association protests pending bills of ₹2,800 crore to Karnataka govt.

The city’s civic body has pending bills to the tune of over ₹2,800 crore. Contractors who have been running pillar to post, protesting, lobbying hard and even approaching the High Court of Karnataka to get their bills cleared, seems to have now lost hopes that their pending bills will be cleared in this financial year. 

“The contractors are reeling under huge losses and are caught in a debt trap and we need these pending bills to be cleared immediately. However, from the information we have, the civic body doesn’t have sufficient funds to do so. With pending bills, developmental works are also suffering in the city,” said K.T. Manjunath, president, BBMP Contractors’ Association. 

However, a senior civic official claimed that the civic body did have funds, but would start clearing pending bills in tranches only after the State government clears it. “There has been a specific instruction to not clear pending bills till probes into the quality of works are completed. That is the reason we are not clearing pending bills,” the officer said. 

Between 2021 and 2023, contractors have carried out works to the tune of ₹3,258 crore. Following allegations of “40% commission” under the previous BJP regime, the incumbent Congress government refused to clear pending bills before a probe into the quality of these works and formed four Special Investigation Teams (SITs) led by four senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers to probe the same. 

However, contractors stalled all civic works in the city in protest, following which the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) released 12.62% of the total pending bills which is about ₹411 crore in September and ₹675 crore for works carried out under Amruta Nagarothana Scheme. 

While the government had taken a stand that the pending bills would be cleared only after the probes were completed, now the SITs have been wound up following a High Court stay order on these probes. The stay order was issued while hearing a petition filed by contractors. Now, these probes have been transferred to Justice H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission probing “40% commission”. The commission was asked to file a report within 45 days in connection to BBMP. 

“It is unclear whether the government will clear pending bills now that the SITs have been wound up or will wait for the report from the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission. We are also awaiting clear instructions on the same,” said a senior civic official.