Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 17: Hot Mix Plant Holders’ Association (HMPHA) of Jammu Province today urged upon the Lieutenant Governor of J&K UT to release their pending payments.
During the meeting which was held under the chairmanship of Sham Singh Jamwal (president of Association), the members discussed that though the liabilities for the year 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2019-20 incurred by the PWD amounting to Rs 110 crore have been approved but the payments have not been released yet.
They said that Rs 100 crore have been approved in the budget for the year 2019-20 for old liabilities and the same amount have been approved for new works for the year 2019-20, whereas funds of 75% of Rs 100 crore for new works have been released but Rs 100 crores to clear old liabilities has not been released so far.
“The Central Government as well as the Government of UT of J&K is claiming that there is no shortage of funds as the same are being released by the former regularly but still our payments of works executed since 2016-17 are not being released,” they regretted.
The members said that they have been misguided by the respective Governments by giving them false assurances that their pending payments would be released very shortly and with that hope the association members executed the allotted works in the past. But now we are facing financial hardships due to non payments of the work done in time, they added.
“On one hand it is being advertised by the UT Government as well as Government of India that steps are being taken to encourage new entrepreneurs for establishment of new units to generate more employment but on the other hand the existing units are discouraged because they are not timely paid and the payments are blocked for 2-3 years, resulting closure of such units”, the meeting rued.