Govt withholds payment to contractors executing PDD projects

By Mudasir Kuloo

SRINAGAR, March 21: State government has withheld payments to contractors to halt works of several projects concerning the Power Development Department.
Work on several projects of street-lighting was started in Kashmir after the Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, in April last year, expressed unhappiness over darkness in several parts of Srinagar.
One of the projects was installation of high mast street lights in Kashmir.
An official of the PDD said the project for installation of 150 high mast street lights in Kashmir was allotted to a contractor at the cost of Rs 7 crore.
“Around 70 per cent has been completed but not a single penny has been released to the contractor,” the official said.
Another project was Dal Lake beautification project, which was allotted to a contractor for installation of ornamental lights along the lake.
“The contractor was to install 700 poles with two lights along Dal Lake. Sixty percent work has been completed. The work has been stopped for payments,” the official said.
The official said the government was not releasing the payments because similar projects in Jammu region are yet incomplete.
“The government does not want to release the payment till work on similar projects in Jammu gets completed with Kashmir Valley,” the official said.
Deputy Chief Minister, Nirmal Singh, who is from Jammu region, is also holding the portfolio of power ministry.
One of the contractors said that they were told to complete the work at the earliest.
“Not a single penny has been released for these works,” the contractor said.
Similarly, work on at least nine projects sanctioned for strengthening power distribution in Jammu and Kashmir have also been “sabotaged” by the authorities. These centrally-sponsored projects were sanctioned to the state under two DDUGJY and IPDS schemes for installation of poles and transmission lines.
Kashmir Valley alone was expected to get around Rs 600 crore under these two schemes for strengthening of power distribution system.
“After several months of work, the projects were awarded to successful bidders, but soon after the authorities cancelled the tenders,” the PDD official said.
The official said the tenders were cancelled after a monitoring body gave an adverse report about these companies.
The PDD, he said, subsequently constituted a committee to verify credentials of the companies and recommended that the contract of these projects should not be taken back.
“Now fresh tenders have been issued. It was done in the backdrop of the delay in tendering process in Jammu region after the PDD failed to submit a comprehensive proposal about these projects to the government,” the official said.
Development Commissioner, PDD, Asgar Ali said he has written to the government for releasing of payments to the contractors.
“I got to know that works have been stopped. Hopefully, the payments are released shortly,” Ali said.
He ruled out that government has withheld payments because Jammu was behind Kashmir in execution of works.