Over 4300 contractors in Nagaland

Nagaland Contractors & Suppliers Union (NCSU) president Pele Khezhie on Sunday said that there were over 4,300 contractors in Nagaland, with Kohima having the highest number (600-700), while the newly-created districts had the lowest.
Seeing that some contractors were becoming successful with increase in the number of infrastructure development projects and building construction across the State, many individuals now wanted to become contractors, Pele said.
Speaking with Nagaland Post, he pointed out that there was a requirement for professional contractors, not seasonal ones, which could be found in abundance in the State. He further revealed that the youngest Class 1 contractor in Nagaland was 21 years and the oldest was 80 years.
He further said there were about 1,000 Class 1 contractors, with 20-25 female contractors. He claimed that the rest functioned as part-time contractors.
Pele alleged that politicians and bureaucrats taking up contract works but assigning these to their kin was a common practice in Nagaland and called for its eradication by initiating strict action against them.
He explained that to become a fully-fledged contractor, one needed to work very hard. He pointed out that a Class 1 contractor had to own 15 types of machinery like normal truck, dipper, water tanker, road roller, etc.
He pointed out that contractors earned profits based on the work and contracts they bag, while the seasonal contractors jumped from one work to another in search of profits without properly focusing on quality work.
The NCSU president further stated that the profession would flourish in the State only if there were industries and asserted that the contractors in Nagaland had the capacity to take up big projects and compete with their counterparts outside.
He stressed that the contractors of Nagaland needed to go out and grab tenders at the national and even international level. He noted that Naga ladies took risk in their business and travelled to countries like China and Thailand to bring their goods, while Naga men were content with their business in the State and did not venture out.
Pele Khezhie opined that the contractors could generate employment too as projects often required huge manpower, but lamented that they had to depend on outsiders, mostly Bangladeshi immigrants, as locals were allergic to hard labour.
He also lamented that the State government was not implementing the 2006 rules and regulations and was still using the 1965 Assam rules only.