New Delhi: A contractor upset over the delay in payment of his bills for carrying out a school development work under 'Mana ooru mana badi' programme, closed the Chintakunta Primary School in Chintakunta of Kottapalli Mandal on Tuesday in Telangana. Contractor Srikanth is said to have spent Rs 4.5 lakh on development works and wandered from door to door to clear his bills.
“I have completed about 75 per cent of the work, but I have not received a single rupee so far,” he lamented.
He said that pressure was mounting on him to repay the loan taken to start the work. He claimed that although he had no intention of obstructing the education of the children, he was forced to close the school in desperation.
After the contractor locked the school, the students were forced to stand outside. The school teachers brought the issue to the notice of District Education Officer (DEO) CHVS Janardhan Rao, who sent the Divisional Education Officer to look into the matter.
After the intervention of the MEO, the contractor expressed confidence and removed the lock. DEO Janardhan Rao assured that the bills of the contractor will be paid at the earliest.
This is not the first such incident, earlier a building contractor in Warangal locked classrooms of a government primary school over the non-payment of contracting bills, forcing students to sit in the open and attend classes in August.
The contractor Sambbiah undertook the construction of two classrooms, a toilet and a ramp at Nikonda Mandal Government Primary School in Warangal in the year 2017-18 at a cost of Rs 20 lakh.