There may be some old liabilities, as such no pending bills, says Com Sec PHE, Irrigation, ‘Have received funds, will disburse amount for works completed: Dir Tourism
Ishtiyaq Ahmed
Srinagar, March 14 (KINS): Amid reports that there were a whopping liabilities worth Rs 1042 crore pending and contractors were suffering because of the delay in releasing the amount, top officials of Roads and Building Saturday said that by March-end, almost all the pending liabilities will be cleared even as officials in the PHE, Irrigation claimed that there were no pending bills of contractors but “they will still verify what kind of liabilities were there.”
Chipping-in, Tourism department officials said that even though there were no major liabilities but they would be releasing the payment for works that stand completed in the days to come as they have received the second installment under CAPEX.
As per the Contractors Coordination Committee (CCC), in Kashmir division, R&B owes Rs 364 crore under different heads to contractors; PHE and I&FC have liability of Rs 222 crore while as tourism department has Rs 30 crore. As per CCC, the total liabilities in the Kashmir division stand at Rs 613 crore.”
In an exclusive chat with the Kashmir Indepth Commissioner Secretary Roads and Buildings Khurshid Shah said that by March-end, the pending bills and liabilities will be cleared. “We are at it and things will be sorted out very soon rather by the end of the current month,” he said.
Clarifying that there were no pending bills or liabilities as claimed by the CCC, the Commissioner Secretary Irrigation and Flood Control Ajeet Kumar Sahu told KINS that there may be some old liabilities. “As such there are no bills pending with us. There was some fiscal indiscipline in the department earlier, which has been done away with and there is complete transparency now,” he said, adding that “we will still verify what pending bills the contractors are talking about and whether the work has been completed.” He said to his knowledge there were no pending liabilities as of now.
Elaborating that the department of Tourism has received the second installment under CAPEX grant, Director Tourism Nisar Ahmed Wani told KINS that they will clear the pending bills by March-end especially the bills regarding works that have been completed. “We will find out wherever the amount is due, we will clear the bills on priority. As far as the works that stand completed, we have already cleared the bills,” he claimed.
However, official sources told Kashmir Indepth News Service that there was some delay in releasing the payment to contractors due to the uncertainty that prevailed in Kashmir post-August 5 last year when Centre announced to scrap the Article 370 and to slice the erstwhile state into two union territories (UTs). “Now that normalcy has prevailed, things are back on track. The genuine concerns of contractors will be addressed in the days ahead,” an official in the J&K administration revealed. (KINS)
