Maharashtra News: ₹80,000 Crore Pending Dues Stall State Projects; Contractors And Engineers Warn Of Statewide Protest, Blame Pre-Poll Schemes

Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Contractors Association and the State Engineers’ Federation threatened statewide protest for failure of the state government to release over ₹80,000 crore in pending payments. The contractors alleged complete stop on development work over pending dues blaming pre election schemes for empty treasuries to make payments since last 18 months.

"The last proper payment clearance happened in January 2024. After that, since the inception of the Ladki Bahin Scheme, our payments stopped. We have filed a petition against the Rural Development Department in the Bombay High Court,” alleged Milind Bhosale, President, Maharashtra State Contractors Association adding that the department has started awarding work to the gram panchayats instead of clearing past payments.

The highest amount of over 50% of the pending amount is from the Public Works Department to the tune of ₹ 38,000 crore followed with Water Conservation and Water Resources 12,000 crore, Rural Development at ₹6,500 crore, Urban Development ₹4,217 crore and others, including District Planning Committees and MLA local development funds.

The Maharashtra Contractors Association representing 300,000 members across all 35 districts plans to launch a mass awareness campaign and large-scale agitation across the state by June 10 if the government does not respond.

The association has alleged the payment clearance rate used to be around 40% before the launch of pre-election schemes like Ladki Bahin. Since the scheme began, that rate has dropped to just 10% and the Finance Department and other relevant departments have failed to provide any clarity on when the dues will be cleared.

“infrastructure, repair, and maintenance work have been halted across key government locations, including Mantralaya, Raj Bhavan, and in major projects under the Jal Jeevan Mission and the Rural Development Department. The government has chosen to remain silent, but we will not. If needed, we will take this agitation to every corner of Maharashtra," claimed Bhosale.

The contractors alleged all work had stopped since February 2025 citing financial strain and six letters to the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Ministers had no positive outcome.