AMC releases dues of Rs 16 cr to contractors

Aurangabad, Jan 25:

The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator A K Pandey provided a relief to the contractors by releasing their partial payment of Rs 16 crore, on the eve of the Republic Day. It is being looked upon as the gift of January 26 by the contractors.

The AMC had released an outstanding of more than Rs 60 crore to the contractors in the past four months. Earlier, the AMC had released Rs 40 crore and Rs 5 crore in the first and the second phase. So far, the AMC could not pay the outstanding to the contractors due to lack of fund. As a result, the development works relating to sewage, electricity, water supply etc. had come to a standstill. On the other hand, the contractors were also making rounds of the civic headquarter for want of their money during the past one and a half year.

It may be noted that the collection of property tax and water tax has increased since the past few weeks. As a result, the civic chief told the in-charge chief accounts officer Sanjay Pawar to do financial planning. Accordingly, Pawar informed the civic chief that around Rs 16 crore bills could be made to the contractors. Hence, the administrator approved the proposal on Monday, and the distribution of bills started, accordingly.

According to the sources, the efforts are underway to make financial planning and release more of the pending bills by March-end.