Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government will clear the dues of works taken up under MGNREGS worth Rs756 crore to the gram panchayats in a week’s time.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice A.K. Goswami and Justice N. Jayasurya held the hearing on Tuesday on a batch of petitions seeking direction to the state government to clear payment dues for employment guarantee scheme works for the years from 2017 to 2019.
Government special pleader Suman and panchayat raj principal secretary G.K. Dwivedi submitted to the court that they got Rs571 crore from the Centre for this purpose. To this, they would add their share of Rs185 crore in a week’s time and remit the amount of Rs756 crore into the bank accounts of gram panchayats, where the works under job scheme were taken up earlier.
They also submitted that out of the total dues of Rs1,117 crore, they would pay the balance amount of Rs361 crore soon after the Centre released its share.
The court directed the state government to file an affidavit with the details of steps taken to clear the dues and also stating whether the released amount reached the contractors who took up works under the job guarantee scheme.
The court also directed the Centre to file an affidavit with details on how much time it needed to release its share of the amount to AP.
It turned down the special government pleader’s plea to give exemption from appearance in the court to panchayat raj principal secretary G.D.wivedi, its commissioner Girija Sankar and finance principal secretary S.S. Rawat and said that they should attend the court hearing. The case was posted for the next hearing to September 22.
