New Delhi: In a letter to chief minister Eknath Shinde and his two deputies, state-government approved contractors and engineered in Maharashtra have alleged that they are facing threats, extortion calls and hooliganism because of political rivalry at their worksites. They have demanded protection from the government and threatened to halt their work by the end of February if this does not happen, The Indian Express reported.“Every district in Maharashtra state is facing the similar pattern where political opponents of the ruling side and also local-level politicians are forcefully stopping the on-going works, using physical violence against and extorting money from the contractor,” the letter sent to Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar by the Maharashtra State Contractors Association (MSCA) and State Engineers Association (SEA) states.“These groups cannot be controlled by government officials. Increased instances of threatening with physical violence; beating up the contractor if they registered an opposition and dictating their own orders are growing across the state. These groups are working in an identical manner all over, where they file written complaints against the contractor and later demand money,” it continues.“The ruling MLAs, MPs and other elected representatives have managed to get sanction for huge amounts of developmental works in the state. While executing it, political groups who are in the Opposition are ensuring that the works are stopped. To do this, these groups are ganging up against the contractors and the labourers, and abusing as well as beating them to stop the work,” it reads.The letter is dated February 6, according to the newspaper.Milind Bhosle, who is president of both the MSCA and SEA, told The Indian Express that “the state government has issued orders for works up to Rs one lakh crore in the state”. “Our contractors are facing trouble on ground during site visits where political opponents of the local ruling side are forcefully stopping the work, using physical violence. The government officials are simply turning blind eye to such instances and our members are scared of filing complaints fearing more threats,” Bhosle continued.The Chief Minister’s Office told The Indian Express that it will be looking into the matter.A year and a half after ago, Shinde rebelled against the Shiv Sena party and took away 40 MLAs along with him to form an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. This toppled the Uddhav Thackeray government in the state, which was formed after an alliance between the Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party.Months later, a similar story played out in the NCP, with Ajit Pawar and many senior MLAs of the party joining hands with Shinde’s faction and the BJP.
