MCD's contractors were on strike from last 16 days and had finally called off the strike on Thursday, subsequent to a declaration by the civic officials regarding outstanding dues.

There were dues of over Rs 600 crores and MCD Commissioner K.S Mehra and Standing Committee chairman Yogendra Chandolia had guaranteed to pay the partial amount of RS 168 crore by 30 sep 2009 and the remaining amount of RS 450 crore  will be paid later.

But the dues remain pending for the last 18 months. Delhi Municipal Contractors Association president Sunil Vohra told IANS that due to nonpayment of dues of about Rs 650 crore by the MCD had made the contractors helpless and they have no other option left in place on going for a strike on July 21.

Around 3000 contractors were involved in the strike. Vohra also said that it is not that MCD has shortage of funds, recently it manage to receive RS 2100 crore from various sources but had neglected the dues of contractors.

He said that MCD's officials are denying all the allegations regarding surplus funds received by them, but the fact is this, they have received more than RS 600 crore from the income tax department as the first installment of lease amount for the civic centre and the Delhi government has released Rs.1, 500 crore to the MCD so there is no enough evidence in the pocket of MCD to prove that it had shortage of funds.

MCD has declared that the entire games project to be ended till 20August but Vohra said it is not possible to complete the projects within this deadline.

Moreover, civic officials are pressurizing contractors to finish the work in the prescribed time limit although they have not make payments to these contractors for past five months. To make the things more worse, government agencies like MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) are digging up the newly-laid roads for their work which is also an another factor for delaying the projects.