VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday found fault with the State government for not clearing MGNREGS dues for 2019-20 fiscal. Stating that it is the last chance for the government to clear the dues, the court made it clear that irrespective of whether the state gets funds from the Centre or not, it has to clear the dues.
Hearing a batch of public interest litigations filed in the court seeking its intervention in the clearance of MGNREGS dues from the State government, a division bench comprising Chief Justice AK Goswami and Justice N Jayasurya pointed out that the State Government has issued a Budget Release Order of Rs 870 crore for the payments of MGNREGS dues. However, the dues have not been cleared so far, it said.
Senior Advocates P Veera Reddy and Dammalapati Srinivas, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that in spite of issuing a budget release order, the payments were not done even after more than a year. They argued that the amount was diverted for other purposes and said the government is now clearing fresh dues instead of clearing the old ones.
The court questioned why the new dues are being cleared instead of old ones and warned of issuing orders stopping the payments altogether. It directed the Centre to furnish details of the funds released under MGNREGS to the state so far. It also asked the principal secretary (Panchayati Raj) and principal secretary (Finance) to make a personal appearance in the court during the next hearing.
Special government pleader Chintala Suman said the government has written letters to the Centre for the release of funds under the MGNREGS and once the funds are released, the payments will be done. He said funds pertaining to 2017-18 are yet to be released. At his request, the court adjourned the case hearing to August 4.
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