Contractors’ bills returned by treasuries in March
Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Apr 20: Though having high expectations that some portion of their liabilities will be cleared by the ending March this year, all the hopes of contractors working in Roads and Buildings (R&B) as well as Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) Departments in J&K have dashed to ground after the announcement of countrywide lockdown on March 24 due to spread of COVID-19 as their payments worth rupees hundreds of crores are pending with the two departments for years together.
According to sources, the contractors in the Union Territory of J&K have been running from pillar to post for release of their liabilities lying with two departments which amount to hundreds of crores of rupees but the same were not released till date.
Sources said, while the liabilities in R&B are in hundreds of crores of rupees in J&K, the liabilities in I&FC Department are over Rs 30 crore in Jammu region alone. While in R&B the liabilities are under various heads, in I&FC the liabilities are against languishing projects like SDRF, AIVP, maintenance and disilting, sources added.
Sources said in Irrigation Department the liabilities under SDRF are since 2014 flash floods and they have not been cleared till date. The funds of the SDRF are pending with respective District Development Commissioners and they are not releasing the same for the reasons best known to them with the result the contractors are suffering, sources added.
Though the bills under other heads were submitted to the treasuries during the ending week of March this year but they were returned by Treasury officers on the pretext that no payments except of those departments which are dealing with essential services will be cleared, sources said.
Even in Irrigation and Flood Control Department the payments under languishing projects have not been released for last some years, sources said, adding when the contractors approached the concerned officers for release of funds they were told that the works under the languishing projects have not been approved.
Sources said, however, in the official document released by them they have granted approval to all 15 languishing schemes in J&K out of which 12 schemes were in different districts of Kashmir valley while three were in Jammu and Kathua districts of Jammu region under I&FC Department. But when the contractors demanded release of payment they were told that the schemes have not been approved while in their officially signed statement it has been mentioned that all the 15 schemes have been granted administrative approval, sources added.
Contesting the claims of the authorities on this ground, the president I&FC Contractors Association Mukesh Singh said that the Department had constituted a High Level Committee in this regard to discuss the fate of Languishing projects in J&K. The Committee had Administrative Secretary PHE/I&FC, Commissioner Secretary, PHE/I&FC, Commis-sioner Secretary R&B, Principal Secretary to PD &MD Department and Principal Secretary to Government Finance Department as its members.
Singh said the liabilities of contractors in I&FC Department are since 2012. While the Department has to pay over Rs 11 crore to contractors for disilting, an equal amount is pending for the works done under AIVP. Besides, Rs two to three crore are withheld with the Department under SDRF and same amount is also lying with it under maintenance head. In addition to it about Rs 12 crore are liability against the languishing projects, he added.
He said the Contractors Association had also met the Advisor to Governor, R R Bhatnagar incharge works in this regard and urged him that the payments be released for the works already executed by the contractors. Though he assured that he will look into the matter but nothing has been done in this regard till date with the result the contractors are in great distress, he added.
However, the liabilities in R&B are much more that I&FC Department. Narender Gupta president R&B Contractors Association said that over Rs 900 crore are total liabilities of contractors in R&B Department in the UT including Jammu and Kashmir regions pending for a long time. He said earlier payment was not made due to dearth of funds while works were executed by the contractors and when this time the contractors were expecting the release of payment but to their ill luck it was not made due to lockdown. He said the bills were submitted to treasuries but the authorities there refused to make payments assigning the lockdown as reason.
When contacted the Chief Engineer R&B Jammu, Des Raj Bhagat said that lockdown was the reason for non clearance of the bills during the ending March this year. He said today the offices will open and they will review how much payment of contractors is pending with the Department saying that figure is not as high as claimed by the contractors.
Chief Engineer, I&FC, Jammu Ashok Kumar Sharma said that they have cleared all payments and only those bills were not cleared by the treasury, which were submitted on March 30 and 31. He added that about Rs 3.50 crore will be the liabilities of the Department towards the contractors and not more than that.
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