MUMBAI, Oct. 31 -- When an agitated Vaibhav Lad, a contractor from Buldhana, called the chief minister's office (CMO) on Friday, demanding that his pending dues for various government projects be cleared before Diwali, the official on the other end cut the call with a brusque: "Don't call here for issues regarding bills. Please contact the concerned department." The call volume at the CMO and the two deputy chief ministers' offices will only intensify over time. On Friday, the CMO was inundated with phone calls from many contractors who have been waiting for years for their dues to be cleared, as they flagged off a campaign titled, 'Call the CM and deputy CMs' to draw the government's attention to their unresolved concerns. After many protests and agitations by contractors across districts, including Mumbai, demanding that their Rs.86,000 crore in overdue payments be cleared failed, the Maharashtra State Contractors Association (MSCA) found a workaround to secure their dues. MSCA shared the numbers of the CMO and offices of the deputy CMs with the contractors. The organised phone campaign will target the CMO on Friday, Eknath Shinde's office of Monday and Sunetra Pawar's office on Tuesday. However, as soon as the CMO's phone lines experienced a surge in call volume on Friday, restless contractors started calling the two deputy CMs' offices right away, disregarding the protocol. Each call told a story of financial crisis faced by respective families due to non-payment of dues from the government. HT accessed some of the call records made by contractors or their family members on Friday. Bhagyashri Kawale, wife of Devidas Kawale from Pandharpur, Solapur district, called the offices of both the deputy CMs, when she was unable to reach the CMO, to claim the Rs.2 crore pending for work done by her husband for the Jal Jeeven Mission scheme. In the call record, she is heard speaking about her husband depositing Rs.5 lakh for a tender - neither was the tender opened nor was the deposit refunded, despite waiting for over a year. "We are in critical financial crisis. The bank has seized our home as we have not been able to pay the EMI, because the government is holding back our arrears. We are fighting to get our home back through the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT)," she said, to which the official at the other end said her case will be escalated to both the deputy CMs' offices. Subodh Sawant, a contractor from Rantagiri, has been struggling to have his pending payment of Rs.4 crore cleared for the tasks accomplished for the Public Works Department around two years ago. He posted a video of him making several calls to the CMO which went unanswered through the day. "Perhaps, they have stopped answering the phone because they are being flooded with calls," he said, in the video. Amravati-based contractor Ujjwal Pande called Shinde's office with an urgent plea: "I am very small contractor and cannot afford a ticket to Mumbai. I will come, if you can send me a railway ticket." While Pande's arrears are yet to be cleared by the government, the official who took the call gave him another number of a person who would most likely solve his problem. Unable to get through the designated offices, Nischal Ambal, from Hingoli, called the water supply minister Gulabrao Patil, demanding his dues. "Dada, I completed the work for Jal Jeevan Mission many months ago. Can I expect a payment before Diwali?" Patil responded saying, "Yes, some funds will be released." He is owed Rs.6 crore. According to MSCA president, Milind Bhosale, while numerous contractors provided recordings of their calls, just as many reported that their calls went completely unanswered. "There was a huge response to our agitation today. Contractors were supposed to call only the CMO. But when they failed, they started calling the deputy CMs too. All are in financial trouble and are worried about a black Diwali," said Bhosale. HT's messages to the CM's public relations office, on the issue, remained unanswered....