Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 9: Hot Mix Plant Holders Association (HMPHA), has made an appeal to the State Government to save them from bankruptcy.
Addressing a press conference here, today the Association president, Sham Singh Jamwal said “we have made an appeal to every body in the Government including Chief Minster, ministers and Legislators in this regard”.
He said it was the Government, which encouraged them to install hot mix plants for macadamization work in the State and to be partner in development process, but after incurring huge money by way of bank loans and cash credits for installation of plants and other paraphernalia, the works are being grabbed by non State Subjects or outsiders taking benefit of lowly paid work force they import from outside.
Singh urged the Government to insert a clause in bidding document that works up to a fixed limit of Rs 30.00 crore for mega projects and Rs 15.00 crore for macadamization work may not be allotted to outsiders in PMGSY, NABARD and CRF and other works of same magnitude from the State exchequer.
He said outsiders after getting work allotted by Central Government for the projects being executed by them intrude into State works and start tendering for smaller works in macadamization thereby depriving the genuine contractors of the State of their rights.
Singh said they use the raw material from State source but don’t provide employment to State Subjects and this is a major cause of unemployment to thousands of youth.
He said that the outsiders only come here to mint money and that too is drained out to other places without any benefit to State economy. He demanded that there must be some limit beyond which these are not allowed to compete. “We had met the Works Minister twice at Srinagar and Jammu and had apprised him about our problems but got only assurance and nothing was done practically”, he added.
He alleged that the hot mixing plant holders are pushed to bankruptcy due to inaction of the concerned Minister.
Singh said, while there stands a work done liability of about Rs 179.0 crore for last year and another Rs 36 crore for reappropriation pending with the Government and this way the contractors are being pushed to the wall. This year again the hot mix plant holders have jointly executed the works of about Rs 200.00 crore without being paid a single penny by the Government, he added.
He said if such situation continues the plant holders will come on the roads. He again made an appeal to all concerned to come to their rescue and save them. Moreover to get a plant installed the State Subject is must along with clearance from Pollution Control Board (PCB), industries etc while no such conditions are imposed on outsiders.
Naresh Sharma, vice president HMPHA, Satish Singh Jamwal and Subash Singh Jamwal were also present in the press conference.
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