Construction contractors being terrorised by goons
KHOTANG, APR 18 -
Construction contractors have complained that goons have been making their life hard by obstructing work and demanding a cut.
Kumar Prasad Acharya, chairman of the Contractors Association, Diktel, said that hooligans create hassles and extract money every time a construction project is started. “The contractors are forced to pay as per their demand,” he said. “Otherwise they will face difficulties to work here.”
He added that due to growing unemployment, most youths were going after contractors . “This is also because of the political protection they have been getting,” he said.
Contractor Prem Lama said that he had received death threats from local hoodlums. He said they threatened him over the phone to kill him if he did not share his income with them.
He also said that they had demanded 25 percent of the project’s value of Rs 21.3 million. Lama is also the managing director of the Fark Irrigation Project. Meanwhile, Rajib Basnet, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Khotang, said the police had not been officially informed about the terror being spread by local goons. “We have helped the contractor to resume construction work at the irrigation project when it had been halted,” he said.
However, Lama said that a group led by Bishnu Raj Rai, a resident of Tempa, had threatened him repeatedly, and that he had complained about it to the police. “The group had also prevented work from being carried out at the project a month ago,” added Lama.
Meanwhile, chief engineer Yekraj Bhattarai, Sub-divisional Office of Irrigation-3, Diktel, said that a general meeting had been held under the chairmanship of Shiva Bahadur Katuwal, the chairman of the project consumer committee, to discuss the death threat.
Bhattarai said that a copy of the complaint had also been sent to the District Administration Office, Khotang. According to him, Jiten Rai and Milan Rai of Rachhanta have been mentioned in the report as being involved in making the death threat.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
