VIJAYAWADA: The State government on Wednesday informed the High Court that it had paid Rs 1,100 crore pending dues to contractors who executed works under the NREGS. It said dues to the tune of Rs 400 crore are still pending and would be cleared once it receives funds from the Centre.
The government made the submission before the bench of Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and Justice N Jayasurya, which heard the petitions filed by several contractors seeking directions to the government for the release of the bills due to them for executing works under the NREGS.
Government special pleader C Suman informed the court that bills below Rs 5 lakh amounting to Rs 415 crore were already paid and recently Rs 756 crore pending bills for the works above Rs 5 lakh were also paid. Of the total Rs 1,500 crore pending bills, Rs 1,100 crore bills were cleared, the government said and added the remaining bills would be cleared once the Centre releases the amount.
Assistant Solicitor General N Harinath said the Centre would release the Rs 1,100 crore after verifying the bills for the works executed. Petitioners counsels informed the bench that only 60 per cent of the bills were cleared and some sarpanches were not paying the amounts released by the government to the contractors.
Responding to this, Suman informed the bench that orders have already been issued to initiate action against sarpanches who are not releasing the amounts to the contractors.
While posting the matter for further hearing to October 7, the bench gave exemption to principal secretary (panchayat raj) Gopala Krishna Dwivedi, panchayat raj commissioner Girija Shankar and principal secretary (finance) S S Rawat, who appeared before it, from personal appearance for the next hearing.