Contractors stop work at Natioanl Games venue

Ranchi, Jan 27 (UNI) Alleging inadequate payment, contractors today stopped construction work of the Mega Complex for the proposed 34th natioanl Games to be hosted by Jharkahnd later this year.

Forty two contractors under major Nagarjun Construction Firm stopped work from noon today.

Association secretary Vikash Chnadra alleged that the Nagarjun Firm was not giving the petty contractors adequate money that made them suffer financially.

Many of such contractors had already left suffering huge loss, he said.

''We will not start unless our demand is met,'' Mr Chandra said.

State Sports Minister Bandhu Tirkey told UNI here that he would investigate the matter and hoped it could be sorted out through talks.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand Olympic Association (JOA) spokesperson Madhukant Pathak said they were certainly worried over the development but made it clear that it was the state government's responsibility to see to te completion of construction work on time.

Besides, the construction firm would have to pay penalty if they failed to keep their commitment regarding the schedule.

While Nagarjun had been assigned to construct the Mega Complex, the Symplex was taking care of rest of the construction work.

Speculation was rife about the state government's capability if they would be able to hold the games as scheduled on November 15.

According to agreement with Indian Olympic Association, the state would have to cough up Rs five crore as penalty if they failed to meet the deadline.

UNI