Contractors announce protest programmes

Kathmandu, July 23

The Federation of Contractors' Association of Nepal (FCAN) has announced protest programmes demanding the payments of the remaining dues by the government, uniformly extending the deadline of all projects, and adjusting the project costs by addressing the excessive price-hike seen recently.

Reiterating many demands that it has been putting forth for the last many months at a press conference organised at its secretariat in the Capital on Sunday, the FCAN said that it would submit a memorandum with an ultimatum to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and development ministries on Monday.

On Tuesday, it would submit the memorandum to the chief ministers of seven provinces and district administration offices of 77 districts and update the political parties, federal government agencies, provincial parties and government offices and district-level offices about their demands from July 26 to July 30.

After informing their demands to all political and government stakeholders, the FCAN said that it would launch sit-in protest at the Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO), offices of chief ministers of all provinces and in front of the Prime Minister's Office. The protest programmes would be intensified from August 1 until the government addresses their demands, said Roshan Dahal, General Secretary of the organisation.

Rabi Singh, President of the FCAN, said that the government has yet to pay billions of rupees against the construction of projects including water supply, health facilities, bridges, roads, Mid-Hill Highway, river control projects, railway projects, urban development programmes, Terai strategic roads, provincial projects and many others.

The FCAN said that the delay in payment has created challenges for the construction entrepreneurs in repaying their bank loan and government taxes. It has disturbed the entire supply chain, said Dahal.

He also demanded that the government should cease to punish the construction and related entrepreneurs in case of bouncing of the cheques issued by them and blacklist them if they failed to make payments to other businesses.

The contractors also demanded to scrap the provision to conduct public construction through the consumers committees and finish the sick projects by ending the contract and clearing payments.  

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 24 July 2023.