Even as the last day of the current fiscal elapsed on Friday, contractors engaged in works in the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) limits must wait longer for clearance of bills worth ₹750 crore that accrued over the past three to four years.
The contractors have met the municipal commissioner on several occasions, but their pleas fell on deaf ears, alleged office bearers of the LMC Contractors’ Association.
Even as the association blamed lack of transparency in payments by the LMC, city municipal commissioner Inderjeet Singh said he had streamlined the payment system and would clear all the bills on time. “Liabilities of ₹750 crores cannot be cleared overnight,” he maintained.
Meanwhile, an office bearer of the association alleged, “The payments are made only to personal favourites even as others have received none. There are many anomalies in the payment system such as those facing EOW inquiry get their share, but those with clean record must run from pillar to post.”