Mysuru: The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has decided to clear the pending bills of the contractors amounting to Rs 110 crore, soon.

The MCC had not cleared the bills since the last three years, causing grave inconvenience to the contractors. The contractors were demanding the MCC to clear the bills since long, and had even staged dharnas a few times earlier.

Speaking at a press conference here on Thursday, Mayor B L Bhyrappa said, the civic body will clear the bills as per seniority of the works completed and the bills submitted. “MCC will clear the bills of works taken up under special grants like Chief Minister’s fund and others. The pending bills of the works taken under general funds will be cleared later. However, the topic will be discussed at MCC meet before approaching the government,” Bhyrappa said.

The Mayor added, “The MCC has come forward to fulfil several of the demands putforth by the contractors. It will approach the government to stop issuing tenders for package works, payment of bills as per the seniority and removal of third-party inspection among others.”

The members of the Contractors’ Association had approached the Palike commissioner and the Mayor seeking modification in the process of development works and they had also threatened to approach the court if the demands were not met with.

He said, “The small contractors could not take up package works – small works of various wards clubbed together – as there were certain guidelines. Majority of them associated with the MCC are local contractors. They were given works like underground drainage (UGD) pipeline works, water tap repairs and other minor works. While the major works were given to Class 1 contractors.”

He said that local contractors will be preferred in future and pointed out the substandard works of the ‘Rajapatha’ where the stone railings were damaged. The works of the Rajapatha were taken up by a contractor not from Mysuru.

The contractors have urged the MCC to cancel third-party inspection to assess the quality of works. Though the MCC authorities inspect the works before clearing the bills, the third-party inspection is a procedure being followed. The contractors have to pay an additional fee for third-party inspection and was against it, the mayor explained.