A 37-year-old government contractor died by suicide at his home in Navi Mumbai because government work was still pending for a long time and payments had not arrived.
The deceased, who was identified as Gajanan Devkate, was found hanging in his flat in the Shagun Paradise building in Ulwe in the early hours of Tuesday evening, August 25. Police have now filed an Accidental Death Report and are investigating the circumstances of his death.
According to the initial police investigation, Devkate had been in serious financial trouble because his bills had not been cleared even after he finished the work. Police said he had visited the office of the concerned executive engineer in Mumbai to ask for his pending payments.
The Maharashtra State Contractors Association said Devkate was waiting for around Rs 2 crore in payments for completed works. The association also claimed that repeated requests to clear the dues did not receive a satisfactory response.
The contractors' association claims have not been independently verified.
Contractor was waiting for the government payments
Devkate had taken contracts from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and government departments, police sources say. The financial problems started to grow as completed work remained pending.
The problem had evidently been bothering him for some time. Devkate had approached the executive engineer's office in Mumbai several times to get his bills cleared, said police.
A letter he had written to the executive engineer about a year ago has also come to light. Devkate expressed frustration over the delay in receiving his payments and said he had visited the office at least 10 times regarding his dues.
The contractors’ association has put the amount pending to Devkate at around Rs 2 crore. The association said the unpaid bills had placed him under severe financial pressure.
The Maharashtra State Contractors Association has called for a full investigation into his death. It also wants the state government to take action against officials if an inquiry finds that anyone was responsible for unreasonable delays in clearing the payments.
The incident has once again brought into focus the issue of delayed payments to government contractors in Maharashtra.
Contractors must spend money on labour, materials, equipment and other expenses before they get paid for completed projects. When government departments do not pay these bills on time, contractors can face serious cash-flow issues, especially when they have loans and other financial commitments to manage.
The association had also expressed concern in the past about large amounts of pending payments among government departments.
In April, contractors had said that unpaid dues in local government departments across Maharashtra had reached Rs 96,400 crore and they had threatened to stop working if the payments were not made. The stoppage was cancelled after the government gave the contractors assurance.
Devkate's death has brought the issue back into focus now
The incident has also triggered a political response in Maharashtra.
Opposition leaders have criticized the state government and demanded accountability for the contractor’s death. Rohit Pawar of NCP-SP accused the Maharashtra government of not taking any steps to address the financial problems faced by contractors and demanded that those responsible be held accountable.
Pawar also mentioned other cases of contractors who apparently died by suicide and called for a wider investigation into the issue.
Maharashtra State Contractors Association has written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to ask the government to investigate Devkate’s death and investigate the allegations of delayed payments. If the government does not take action, the association has also warned that contractors could start an agitation.
The case is still being investigated.
Police have not formally established that unpaid bills were the main reason for Devkate’s death. The pressure of pending payments is also an aspect of the case, but the investigation is ongoing.
The incident underscores the debilitating effects of delayed payments for contractors that depend on government departments for payments after completing their jobs.
Construction contractors also don’t always get paid on time for project completion. Delays affect their ability to pay workers, suppliers and lenders, and if they are delayed it can affect their ability to take on new projects.
Devkate’s case has therefore raised wider questions about how government departments handle contractor payments and whether there are enough systems in place to prevent long delays.
The police investigation at the moment is to establish the cause of his death.
Meanwhile, the contractors' association is seeking answers from the state government on the alleged Rs 2 crore dues and Devkate's repeated attempts to get the payments cleared.
The case has once more put Maharashtra’s contractor payments under the spotlight and raised questions about whether government departments need a faster and more transparent process for clearing bills after projects are completed.
