Contractors who have executed various works allotted to them by Roads and Buildings and Flood Control (I&FC) Departments in Jammu and Kashmir have not received payment against such works for a period ranging from one to more than two to three years resulting in the mounting of liabilities with these departments. However, a glimmer of hope that some part of their Bills payment would be cleared by the end of March this year has turned into their despair due to outbreak of the Corona virus epidemic and the consequent lockdown.
The reasons of accumulating of these liabilities running into hundreds of crores of Rupees with these departments for years together is beyond comprehension. Agreed, payments for the financial year 2019-20 got held up due to the reasons of lockdown etc but why payments related to earlier years are reported to be not cleared. Budgeted rules are that provisions have to be kept against a liability expected to arise and cleared as soon as possible . On the contrary , no specific reasons are seen for such a type of financial mess with these two departments and the unfortunate contractors are running from pillar to post for getting their payments ‘cleared’. Works are allotted but not “approved” , where they are approved, funds were not released – all these types of muddle and disarrayed things are rife in these two departments. An early and concerted attention of the administration is required in the matter.
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