Contractors announce to boycott tendering process in KP

MANSEHRA: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government contractors association on Friday announced the boycott of the tendering process across the province if the construction rates were not increased in accordance with the current inflation.

“We are still being paid according to the rates fixed by the government in 2017 and prices of construction and other materials jumped almost double during this period. We will observe a complete boycott of the tendering process if the rates were not revised by the government,” Riaz Khan, the provincial president of the contractors association, told a meeting.

The contractors from Mansehra, Battagram, Abbottabad, Kohistan and Kolai-Palas attended the meeting. The provincial general secretary of the association, Mohammad Siraj, and district president Arshad Khan also spoke on the occasion.

Riaz Khan said that the constructors were going to boycott the tendering process from January 1, 2022 across the province. “The government, even then, doesn't increase the construction rates, we would stop the execution of the development projects and schemes underway across the province from March 1, 2122,” he added.

The provincial president of the contractor’s body said that they were suffering financial losses in the execution of the public sector’s development schemes as prices of construction materials increased around 100 percent during the corresponding period. “The rates of iron, cement and other materials have increased double and masons and labourers have been

receiving almost double of the wagers, which they used to receive in 2017,” Riaz Khan added.

The former opposition leader in the KP assembly, Shahzada Gustasap Khan also attended the meeting and said that government had failed to overcome the inflation and people were committing suicides because of the hunger.