Suicides in Maharashtra ‘linked’ to unpaid bills of contractors, association seeks action

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Sunil Wagadre (52) in Amravati district on October 8, 2026; Gajanan Devkatte (36) in Navi Mumbai on August 25, 2026; P V Verma (63) in Nagpur on September 1, 2025; Harshal Patil (35) in Sangli on July 23, 2025.

All four died by suicide, and their families say the common thread was severe financial stress over pending bills for work done for the Maharashtra government: Rs 2.5 crore for Wagadre, Rs 40 crore for Verma, Rs 60 lakh for Patil and Rs 2.5 crore for Devkatte.

The four families are left with one question: will they get justice?

On Monday, a group of agitated civil contractors in Maharashtra performed a symbolic “Tervi” — the 13th-day ritual after death — of the state government outside the Public Works Department (PWD) office in Amravati to register their distress over unpaid dues.

The Maharashtra State Contractors Association (MSCA) claims nine contractors have died in the last year-and-a-half because of pending government dues, which it puts at Rs 90,000 crore, mainly for projects sanctioned during 2022-23 and 2023-24. The state government says it is working to resolve the issue but pegs the pending amount at Rs 17,000 crore, of which Rs 6,200 crore has been “cleared”.

According to Ujjwal Pande, Amravati district president of the State Engineers Association, a year before the November 2024 state elections, the Maharashtra government released work orders amounting to four times the available funds. He alleged that every contractor gets a work order only after paying about 10 per cent of its amount as “commission”.

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The contractors also question the government’s spending on the flagship Ladki Bahin scheme, launched ahead of the polls, while ignoring their dues. Opposition leaders, such as MLA Rohit Pawar of NCP-SP, have also claimed the government is clearing the bills of contractors from Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh while the dues of local Marathi contractors remain unpaid.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Maharashtra PWD Minister Shivendraraje Bhosale said, “The government makes the payment to principal contractors. Sub-contractors are not registered with us. Bills of Rs 17,000 crore were pending with PWD. Of these, we have cleared Rs 6,200 crore so far, ensuring that all small contractors having pending bills of less than Rs 1 crore got their dues.”

However, the contractors say much more needs to be done. During statewide protests on October 19, they arranged a mock funeral of the state government in Amravati, calling Maharashtra a financially “dead” state. The “Tervi” ritual followed on Monday.

At Jarud village in Warud taluka of Amravati district, Varsha Wagadre sat beside her husband’s garlanded photograph with a vacant look in her eyes. Her husband Sunil, a licensed contractor, took his life in his agricultural field in the village on the evening of October 8, when Varsha had gone out with their son, 13, and daughter, 19. Varsha says he was under huge stress because, even after completing government projects in 2023-24, his bills of approximately Rs 2.5 crore were unpaid.

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“He demanded his money several times, but did not get it. A man with immense self-respect, he finally took the extreme step. Now I just want the government to return my husband,” Varsha told The Indian Express.

Wagadre left a suicide note asking his nephew and colleague Ghanshyam to shoulder the family’s responsibilities and sell some of the property to clear a bank loan, a gold loan and other debts. Ghanshyam said Sunil “desperately wanted the government to clear his bills”. Sunil had also participated in the “Bheek Maango Andolan” organised by contractors in Nagpur in August 2025.

According to Wagadre’s family, he was a licensed contractor who also took up a sub-contract from a construction firm, which was the main contractor for road and bridge construction related to a work order dated October 7, 2024.

P V Verma, also known as “Munna” Verma, died by suicide at his residence in Raj Nagar, Nagpur. His family and the contractors claimed that his dues of Rs 40 crore for completing various government projects were pending.

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Following the death, Nagpur police arrested three persons: NCP-SP politician Sharad Maind of Pusad Urban Co-operative Bank, an alleged illegal money lender Manjeet Singh Wade, and another contractor, Radheshyam Biyani. Police alleged that they were part of a nexus that provided high-interest loans to people like Verma and then exerted pressure for repayments.

Harshal Patil died by suicide at his farm land at Tandulwadi village in the Walwa taluka of Sangli district. His family member Prakash Sankpal said he was not a licensed contractor but worked with a few other contractors, and was owed about Rs 60 lakh for work, such as laying a pipeline and constructing a water tank.

Sankpal said Harshal had taken loans to complete the work and could not repay them. He is survived by his wife and a daughter. About Rs 3.8 lakh were cleared after his death, but the remaining bills are pending, Sankpal said.

Gajanan Devkatte left no suicide note when he died at his house in Ulwe. His family says he took the final step after failing to recover dues of Rs 2.5 crore for government work completed over the last three years. He is survived by his wife Sheetal, two children and an ailing mother.

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Sheetal has filed a complaint at the Ulwe police station, blaming a few government officials for allegedly taking a bribe from her husband to clear his bill, and then avoiding him. Police Inspector Arjun Rajane said, “The probe revealed that Gajanan Devkatte was not a licensed contractor. He was working through a sub-contractor. We have received a complaint from his wife with allegations of bribery, but so far there is no evidence to prove it. The inquiry is ongoing.”

Sheetal cited a letter titled “Amhi Jagave Kase… (How should we live?)”, which her husband submitted to authorities in the Mumbai City division on July 4, 2025. In it, he wrote about unpaid bills of small contractors and said, “We visit every sub-division to seek work, but get nothing. Nobody sees anything beyond money…”

Dipesh Kolurwar, a member of MSCA in Nagpur, said Verma mortgaged some of his properties and took loans from financial institutions and illegal money lenders to complete the work in time. “Had the government paid his bills, he would have survived,” he said.

MSCA president Milind Bhosale said that of the Rs 90,000 crore owed, about Rs 38,000 crore are pending dues for Jal Jeevan Mission work and Rs 27,000 crore are unpaid bills at the PWD.

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“There are many contractors who have taken loans, borrowed money to manage expenses, pay labourers, buy materials, to complete the government works in time. Their bills have not been cleared since 2022. Now they are unable to handle the mounting financial pressure,” said Bhosale.