ANANTAPUR: NREGA bills that are pending clearance since two years are causing embarrassment to employees, who were reportedly forced by ruling party leaders to keep the bills pending even as the High Court had directed the government to clear all such bills under the programme.
In this backdrop, Anantapur district panchayat officer G. Parvathi on Saturday issued show-cause notices to extension officers of panchayat raj and rural development trust for failing to distribute pending bills to beneficiaries from the district.
Bills to the tune of around Rs 6
crore remain pending for the past two and a half years as most of them were from the TD regime.
Incumbent MLAs and ruling party leaders reportedly stopped the bills for alleged misuse of funds. In addition, the main concept of the programme was diluted after leaders allegedly used machinery to dig pits instead of providing wage-employment to farm labourers.
However, the district panchayat officer (DPO) served show-cause notices to the extension officers in 23 mandals for ignoring court orders in this regard. “Departmental action would be initiated against those who fail to submit their explanation within three days of receiving the show-cause notices”, the DPO said and added that funds were already credited to gram panchayats.
According to the show-cause notice, at least Rs 1.01 crore bills are pending for 211 works in Tadipathri mandal while Rs 1.02 crore worth 173 works were completed much earlier in Atmakur mandal. In Mudigubba mandal, 146 works have been completed and Rs 1.11 crore bills are due while in CK Palli mandal 128 works remain unpaid.
In addition, following political pressures from ruling party leaders and poor quality and machinery used during the TD regime, the employees were in clutches. At least 25 employees of various categories were booked under various criminal cases in Mudigubba mandal over irregularities in the works.
