CMO to hold meet today to sort out finance issues

Vijayawada: The Chief Minister's Office has convened a crucial meeting with the finance department here on Monday to discuss the vexatious pending payments issue.

Secretaries of government departments have been asked to send details of files, pending for approval of the finance department, for necessary action. K S Jawahar Reddy, special chief secretary to Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, convened the meeting against the backdrop of mounting court cases, particularly contempt proceedings against top bureaucrats, over non-payment of bills, official sources said.

The sources said a sum of over Rs 40,000 crore has been pending for payment for works executed by various departments. "Allocations have been made in the Budget but when it comes to actual payment, files are getting stuck with the finance department. This has in many a case led to avoidable litigation in the High Court," a senior bureaucrat pointed out.

While many state government works were hampered due to non-availability of funds, several centrally-sponsored schemes too have come to a standstill with the Government of India not releasing grants as the state has not been able to meet its proportionate share, the bureaucrat noted.

In some cases, the state government even diverted the grants, released by the Centre, for other purposes. With various department heads, during regular review meetings with the CM, raising complaints over non-clearance of bills in time, the CMO has got into action to sort things out. Bureaucrats are, however, skeptical about any positive outcome from the CMO meeting as the state coffers are "practically empty". PTI