Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Nov 1: Payments worth hundreds of crores of rupees are pending with cash starved Government treasuries in the State since July this year which mostly include the GP Fund bills of the Government employees as well as bills of contractors.
According to sources, due to the paucity of funds the payment of GP Fund bills of Government employees as well as bills of contractors and other payments are not cleared in time by the authorities due to shortage of funds and hundreds of cases are lying in queue for months together in Government treasuries in the State since July this year.
“The employees are making daily rounds of Government treasuries for the payment of their G P Fund or clearance of other bills but every time they return with empty hands from the cash starved treasuries. This has generated a lot of resentment among the in service Government employees whose G P Fund cases are lying pending for over last three months now”, sources added.
Sources said the Saddar Treasury Jammu alone has to clear a liability of Rs 370 crore since July ending this year, followed by Saddar Treasury Srinagar which has to clear a payment of about Rs 70 crore. The Government Treasury of Talab Tillo has to clear bills amounting to over Rs 25 crore while the Treasury at Town Hall, Jammu has to pay the liabilities of over Rs 40 crore till date.
Sources said the financial crunch faced by the treasuries has become so acute that payment is released turn by turn to clear the backlog. It was on October 29 the Director General Treasuries released the funds to the treasuries for clearance of G P F bills of employees pending up to July 31 this year, sources said, adding but this will not solve the problem as treasuries have to pay huge liabilities.
Saddar Treasury Jammu alone has to clear the liability of Rs 370 crores in the shape of GP Fund Bills and contractors bills etc , sources said, adding while the Sadar Treasury Srinagar has to clear the liability of about Rs 70 crores.
Same is the case with the other treasuries in the State which have to clear liabilities worth crores of rupees since July this year, sources said, adding the Treasury of Talab Tillo Jammu has to clear a liability of over Rs 24 crores towards the GP Fund only while it has a liability of over Rs five crore towards the contactors.
The Treasury at Town Hall Jammu has to clear liabilities of Rs 25 crores towards G P Fund and Rs 22 crores towards the contractors payment since July this year.
However, the employees whose bills of G P Fund are pending after July 31 have to wait for more time. This has been a cause of grave concern among them and they said that delay in payment of GP Fund for months together has compounded their problems.
Maintaining that the G P Fund is applied by an employee to meet out some emergency expenses like marriage of his or her wards, construction of house or its renovation etc and when the payment is not made in time there is no fun for applying the same as the employee has again to seek loan either from banks or private agencies.
In Saddar Treasury Srinagar the G P Fund case of an employee amounting to Rs 1.50 lakh is pending from August this year. He had applied for the same in August this year to solemnize the marriage ceremony of his daughter. The marriage date is coming near but the employee is making daily rounds of the treasury requesting officials and officers to help him but to no avail.
Likewise, at New Plots treasury a senior Government officer who had applied to withdrawal of over Rs five lakh from his G P Fund to meet the emergency expenses of his family is also making rounds of the said treasury for last three months but every time he gets the reply that funds have not been released.
These employees posed a question that the GP Fund is being withdrawn for emergency purposes and the Government should adopt a system that the money is credited in the account of the employee on the same date when the sanction has been granted.
The employees bodies and contractors representatives have also taken serious exception to delay in the payment of G P Fund and contractors bills and warned to come to streets if the immediate steps were not taken to make timely payments which should not be delayed than 10 to 15 days in treasuries.
Admitting that huge liabilities are pending with treasuries, Director Accounts and Treasuries Lochan Dass said that the payments will be cleared as soon as funds are released by the Government.
However, when contacted the Director General Accounts and Treasuries, Altaf Hussain Mirza told Excelsior that the funds have been released today to clear all the GP Fund cases up to July 31 this year and the funds for clearing the contractors and other bills will be released tomorrow.
But the confirmed sources said the cases are piling up in treasuries as they have failed to make the payments of GP Fund and other bills since July this year due to paucity of funds.
Sources said that the Saddar Treasury Srinagar which has a liability of about Rs 70 crores has received a payment of Rs 10 crore for clearance of liabilities on account of G P Fund up to ending July this year. This payment was released after a gap of three months and the cases lying pending after July 31 to October this month have to wait for more time, sources added.
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