Vijayawada: The High Court dismissed the Andhra Pradesh government’s plea for extension of time for a period of eight weeks to clear the bills for works taken up under MGNREGS.
A single judge bench headed by Justice Battu Devanand heard recently an application filed by the AP government seeking to extend the time limit for implementation of its order to clear bills of job works.
The government submitted that the orders of the High Court were communicated to all the respondents and accordingly, engineer-in-chief, rural water supply, addressed a letter to the principal secretary, finance, on August 31, with a request to direct chief planning officer, Chittoor, to release amounts due to the petitioners. It said that the finance department was still in the process of paying the amounts and it might take a few more weeks due to administrative reasons and sought a time limit to be extended for a further period of eight weeks to enable it to clear dues to the petitioners.
The court said it was not inclined to accept the request for extension of time as it adjourned the cases for several times since June 22 and observed that after giving sufficient time to the respondents to take appropriate action and with no proper response, it passed an interim order on August 23, directing the respondents to clear the bills within two weeks by September 6.
The court said there were no sufficient reasons for extension of time and dismissed the application seeking extension.
