Countdown starts, clear bills or civic works stop

Urge Modi to end harassment; point fingers at minister Priyank

- Mohammed Yacoob @Bengaluru

IN the wake of the state contractors' association threatening to launch protests over the delay in releasing pending bills, vendors working with the Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd (KEONICS), a state government undertaking, have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to release pending bills and end "harassment".

Keonics Empanelled Vendors' Welfare Association, in its letter to the PM, stated that around 450 to 500 vendors working with KEONICS are in dire straits due to delays in releasing the pending bills and changes in the eligibility criteria by the management. Eligibility criteria were changed to help some big companies, they alleged.

The association has also written to the President of India, Union IT/BT minister and the Karnataka governor.

The association held IT and BT Minister Priyank Kharge, KEONICS Chairman Sharath Bache Gowda and senior officers with the corporation responsible for the harassment they face. It also held them responsible if any of the vendors took extreme measures.

Association president Vasanth K Bangera said bills worth around Rs 350-400 crore are pending and nearly 6,000 families that depend on the vendors are facing hardships. Vendors are being harassed as they had protested against an official who had demanded commission and bills are being held back in the name of investigating a few violations, they alleged.