Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 5: Suppor-ting the cause of agitating contractors seeking the early clearance of their pending claims and bills, NPP chairman Harsh Dev Singh has flayed the Govt for the fiscal mess and financial crunch prevailing in the State.
He said that while on the one hand salaries and wages of Govt employees remained unpaid for months, the contractors registered for execution of public works on the other hand were deprived of their work done claims and bills for periods ranging from 2-3 years. Only two days back, the ReT teachers were brutally lathi- charged by the police merely for the reason that they were seeking the release of their pending wages.
Addressing press conference here today Singh said that the Govt’s apathy in this regard had not only deprived the contractors of their hard earned payments but caused immense hardships to the labourers. He said that labour class which was dependent for its sustenance upon daily earnings had been forced to starvation as the payments of the contractors were delayed for years by the Govt. Not only that several contractors had reached a stage of bankruptcy as their payments were withheld by the Govt for years but interest on loans/finances availed by them from banks and financial institutions kept multiplying.
Expressing his dismay over the creation of huge unprecedented liabilities during the last three years in PW(R&B) Department which totalled Rs 1024.45 crore, Singh urged upon the Govt. to fix responsibilities for the highly irregular practice committed in violation of the financial accounting system and laws. He said that creation of liabilities is barred not only under the financial code but also strictly forbidden by the Finance Department through dozens of circulars and guidelines issued from time to time with strict warnings to make those authorizing such expenditure personally liable for the same. He said that with liabilities for the last three years amounting to Rs 1024.45 crore in PW (R&B) Deptt having been admitted by the Govt till August 28, 2017 as and with a few hundred crores of additional liabilities having been created during the last six months, it was a case of financial anarchy in the deptt which regretfully had failed to receive the attention of concerned quarters.
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