Jammu and Kashmir Contractors Coordination Committee (JKCCC) has warned the State Government that if the huge arrears of payment amounting to nearly 500 crore rupees are not cleared immediately they would refuse to undertake any developmental work in the State whenever announced by the State Government. The striking contractors say that in the aftermath of 2014 devastating floods in the valley, the State Government approached them with the request to come to the assistance of the State at a crucial point of time. The Contractors’ body agreed to take up rescue and rehabilitation task in a big way as the Government authorities promised that money was not a problem because the Union Government had provided sufficient funds at their disposal. However, four years have gone by when the floods had happened and the contractors were deployed for rehabilitation work and yet the payments accruing to them have not been cleared so far. We know that a plethora of formalities have to be completed before payment is released to the contractors and all that takes its time. Nobody says that the formalities should not be completed but there has to be a certain period of time within which all documentation and paper work should be finalized and payments released.
Delaying and deferring payments to contractors is an established norm in our Public Works Department. The need of the hour is that the work culture has to be changed. People do not have time to waste in wasteful activities. Running after the files in offices is essentially waste of time. If the administrative function is normal and within the framework, there should be no need of running after the files. We need administrative reforms to overcome the old and outdated system of dealing with the arrears of payment issue. If the sanctioning authority is impressed upon either through regular Government instructions or through public pressure to change the entire system of clearing the arrears of payment, this malaise can be cured. Otherwise, one would think that the Government is privy to the lacunae and willingly overlooks it for reasons not known to us.
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