22 November 2004	Monday	09 Shawwal 1425

HARIPUR, Nov 21: Contractors of the Haripur region, who have been on a strike for about one and a half months, are still not taking part in the tender process of development schemes proposed by members of provincial assembly and the three tiers of district government, sources told Dawn here on Sunday.

The contractors registered with different projects executing government agencies of Haripur went on strike for an indefinite period last month demanding enhancement of rates and the shifting of Haripur to region No 3.

They had also announced that they would not submit tender for any new project unless their demands were met. The contractors were earlier on strike for about seven months and resumed work in June this year when, according to one of them, they were assured of enhancement in the rates by Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani.

Zahid Iqbal Yusufzai, an office-bearer of the government contractors association, Haripur, while briefing newsmen on resons for the strike, said that unlike other districts consisting of hilly areas, which were placed in region 3, Haripur district was placed in region 1.

The district comprises 44 union councils, 35 of which are demographically equal to the districts having hilly areas, but the provincial government despite repeated requests had not yet accepted their demand to shift Haripur to region No 3 from region No 1. This was a great injustice to the contractors of Haripur region who are made to bear financial loss in each contract, he added.

Replying to a question he said that the contractors of this region were still receiving rates fixed by the provincial government under its construction schedule of 1999 while during the last five years the price of iron, cement, wood, bricks, sand gravel and labour charges had gone up manifold.

"As per the previous schedule, a contractor has to suffer a loss in a construction contract while he is bound to pay five per cent income tax and other unspecified charges", he added.

Quoting a notification endorsed by the Planning and Development Department of NWFP pertaining to approval of escalation on steel bars, pipes, sections, strips and sheets, Mr Yusufzai said that the contractors were not yet given escalation by the department.

There were about Rs150 million contracts of new projects which were recommended by the four MPAs and three tiers of district government of Haripur for the current fiscal year and were yet to be contracted out due to contractors' strike, sources said.

These projects, for which the works and services department and tehsil municipal administration had called tenders twice but were not contested by the registered contractors, included road carpeting, extension of healthcare facilities, schools and water supply schemes.

It is believed that the strike would have negative impacts on the uplift schemes. And if the matter was not resolved by the next month as there was likelihood of a moratorium on the district governments funds when they were about to be dissolved in December on completion of their tenure. Moreover, the two quarters of current the fiscal year have passed and only two were left.