Vijayawada: The state govt has decided to designate chief engineers of irrigation projects as bill clearing authority to streamline project works. The state govt found that existing nodal officers to clear the bills, executive engineers, are uploading the bills without looking into govt’s priorities under pressure from contractors.
The govt is facing pressure to clear the dues once the bills are uploaded to the system.
Keeping in view of the financial constraints in clearing all the dues, the state govt wanted to put only the priority projects on the fast track to ensure its early completion. Instead of spending the entire budget as a piecemeal on all projects, the state govt has decided to take up the works in the priority projects and clear the bills.
In this context, the state govt has decided to transfer the bill clearing authority to chief engineers from the executive engineers. Executive engineers and their immediate bosses, superintending engineers would be confined to monitor the progress of the work and forward the periodical reports to the chief engineer’s office. Since chief engineers have been asked to set separate timelines for each work, they would upload the bills as per the progress achieved at field level.
Sources said that executive engineers have already uploaded bills to the tune of Rs.7,000 crore pertaining to the works that have been carried out during the current fiscal.
Besides, about Rs.18,000 crore was pending for clearance for the past five years. However, the govt is not in a position to clear all the dues before the completion of the current fiscal.
The govt wanted to prove a point that at least a few major projects were completed in the current financial year. It was estimated that it would require at least Rs. 14,000 crore to achieve the targets in the priority projects.
