National
Home Minister says govt will take strong action against slowpoke contractors
Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa has said that the government will no longer be a mute spectator as contractors fail to complete development works on time and indulge themselves in malpractices.Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa has said that the government will no longer be a mute spectator as contractors fail to complete development works on time and indulge themselves in malpractices.
Talking to representatives of Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal (FCAN), who had reached to submit a memorandum on Monday, Home Minister Thapa urged the contractors amend their earlier shortcomings.
During the meeting, the contractors said that for every works they carry out they had to offer bribe to government workers, give donations to local goons and political parties. In response, the Home Minister directed the FCAN representatives to stop giving any sort of financial donations to such individuals.
Minister Thapa assured the contractors that if they provide information on anyone who seeks bribe including civil servants and engineers, the government will put the wrongdoers in jail adding that action will be taken against civil servants who intentionally fail to clear contract files.
The contractors thanked the Home Minister for ending the syndicate system in transport sector and drew the attention of Minister Thapa saying that some businesspersons are enforcing the syndicate system in the purchase of construction materials.
Likewise, the FCAN representatives said that their attention had been drawn towards the government’s move to arrest contractors who have failed to complete development works on time and those lagging behind the schedule agreed to in the contract and urged Home Minister Thapa not to detain the contractors.
On Thursday, Kaski Police arrested Surendra Basnet, owner of Justine Time Construction, a sub-contractor for blacktopping of the Kotre-Gagangauda section of Prithvi Highway. The Kaski District Administration Office (DAO) said he was caught after his company failed to complete works even within the extended deadline of mid-April while the delay affected people greatly.
The action came a day after a meeting headed by Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, which was attended by secretaries from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, chief of the security agencies, and mayors of Kathmandu and Lalitpur Metropolitan City, on Wednesday decided to take action against non-performing and under-performing contractors.