Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 29: High Court has directed the Chief Secretary to settle the pending dues of contractors for which they have executed and completed the works without constraining them to approach the court.
The direction has been passed in a petition filed by contractor Mohammad Afzal Reshi through his advocate Mehraj-ud-din Bhat seeking release of pending amount for the work which he has executed.
Justice Sanjeev Kumar directed the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory to examine this issue after getting inputs from all the departments and the agencies of the Government which get their works executed through contractors and deny them their due payments citing paucity of funds as impediment.
“He shall ensure that these matters are settled by the Government at its own level without constraining the aggrieved contractors to approach this court. This would avoid unnecessary litigation and piling up of cases in this court”, Justice Kumar directed.
Court advised the Chief Secretary to constitute a high empowered committee consisting of Administrative Secretary of the concerned department, Secretary Finance and a senior Chief Accounts Officer, to examine these claims of the contractors and wherever claims are found genuine, the concerned department will make the payments without any further wastage of time, based on the recommendations of the aforesaid Committee.
“Should there be any delay in the settlement of admitted claims of the contractors, the amount shall be paid along with the interest at the lending rate of interest of the bank, so that the contractors are not made to face starvation and financial crisis”, Court directed.
Contractors court said, admittedly do not execute work for charity and they invest money with the hope that on execution of work they will earn profits and, thus, meet their day to day needs and run their homes.
“If Union Territory is short of funds, there is no point in issuing NITs, inviting people to execute works by investing their hard earned money. There are many cases where the contractors execute allotted works after getting financial help from the banks, where they are supposed to pay a high rate of interest. I am sure, by this conduct of Union Territory and its agencies, many contractors must have run in a deep financial crisis”, Justice Kumar added.
Court also directed the Wullar-Mansbal Development Authority to release the balance payment of the petitioner-Reshi to the tune of Rs. 20.97 lakhs along with the interest at the rate of 6% from the date it has become due within a period of two months.
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