Lahore Building Contractors Association (LBCA) has announced to boycott tenders of all the development projects of the provincial government to register their protest against non-payment of their dues spent on on-going projects for the last two months.
Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club (LPC) here on Saturday, Lahore Building Contractors Association (LBCA) President Maqsood Butt, General Secretary Najam Iqbal Qureshi and others urged the Chief Minister Punjab to look in to the matter and resolve the issue.
They said that all the cheques issued to the contractors working in the city on various developmental projects had not been enchashed and the contractors were facing severe liquidity crunch. They alleged that the government despite non-payment was pressurising the contractors to complete their projects.
They demanded that the provincial government should make sure immediate payment against the cheques issued to contractors of various development projects. They said that tenders of new projects should not be issued before completion of new developmental projects as non-availability of the funds delay completion of work and increase cost of the projects thus causing financial burden both on the government and the contractors.
LBCA also announced that if these demands were not met at the earliest, the Association would be forced to stop work on all the on-going projects. They also said that they had also contacted Federation of Punjab Contractors Association and convened a meeting on Monday (April 19, 2010) to spread its protest all over the province as contractors in whole of the province were facing the same situation as their brethren in Lahore.