The contractors associated with Dehradun Contractor Welfare Committee (DCWC) demonstrated at Parade Ground and later took out a rally towards the Chief Minister’s residence on Tuesday in support of their charter of demands. The demands include tender of the Government-run projects amounting up to Rs 5 crore being done through small tenders and  prompt clearance of  their  dues of 2013-14 . Congress, the principal opposition party in the state, also came out in support of the association’s demands. Many Congress leaders, including Kedarnath MlA Manoj Rawat, Pradesh Congress Committee senior vice- president Suryakant Dhasmana and former MlA Rajkumar, turned up at the demonstration site and expressed solidarity with the demands of the contractors. 

A large number of contractors from across the State earlier arrived at Parade Ground in Dehradun and sloganeered against the State Government for not redressing their demands. As they were marching towards the Chief Minister’s residence police arrested around 60 of them who were later released at police lines. 

While expressing solidarity with the agitating contractors, the Congress leaders said that the locals are being denied tenders thanks to the ill-conceived tender policy of the state government. They further said that not just the contractors based in the state but the youth who work under them are losing works due to the wrong policy being executed by the state government.

DCWC president Govind Singh Pundir said that their dues with the State Government are piling up.  He further said that earlier they had met the people’s representatives and the bureaucrats, urging them to clear their dues at the earliest. “But nothing has happened so far,” he said.

The union pitched for the tenders of the Government projects being given to the small contractors based in the state, he said, adding that the e-tendering process has left them, the small contractors from the state, in the lurch.

Another DCWC member said that only big contractors from outside the state are being given tenders of big projects like all- weather roads and highways through e-tendering process. “The government’s big projects are being given to the contractors sitting in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and some other States at our expense.

The system has been developed in such a way that the local and the small contractors are unable to secure tenders of  such big- ticket projects, said Rajendra Singh Kunwar, secretary DCWC.  “On August 9, 2017, a meeting of the state cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat, MlA Munna Singh Chauhan, secretary finance, U’khanad Amit Singh Negi and chief executive engineer, Public Works Department  with the contractors welfare committee members were held during which their 10- point charter of demands was discussed threadbare. But no government order has been released so far,” Kunwar said.