Bihar state government’s secretariat (Sinchai Bhawan) structure is announced to be sold in an auctioned. A Patna Sub-Judge court has ordered to attach the Sinchai Bhawan building for auctioning and make the payment to the petitioner Mohan Kumar Khandelwal, whose payment was due for the last seven years and it was not paid by the Water resource department.
A notice regarding this was placed outside the principal secretary office on the first floor of the building. Water resource department principal secretary Tripurari Sharan has said that he is not aware of such development and appropriate action will be taken after the thorough information.
This is a case of civil monetary liability. Mohan Kumar Khandelwal one of the directors of Kems Services Private limited has filed the case. In 2011 his company has done the work of around Rs 4.95 crores for the Flood Control Division, Naugachiya’s Executive Engineer. But no payment was ever made to the company.
In 2013 he filed a case against the water resource department in Bihar Public Works Arbitration Tribunal. The Tribunal ordered the govt to make the payment. But nothing happened.
In 2015 Mohan Khandelwal filed a civil case in the Patna High Court as he was not satisfied with the amount mentioned by the Tribunal previously for the payment. In 2017 the High court gave the decision to make the payment within a month.
Bihar Government still didn’t follow the court order. As a result of that KEMS Services filed the Execution case and on August 24, the court has ordered to attach the movable and non-movable assets of the Principal Secretary. As per the order of the court, the Bihar Government will have to pay the interest of 10% annually along with the principal amount. Interest will be applicable since 2011.
Sanjay Kumar Singh, a lawyer at Patna High court speaking with Newsd, highlights the plight of the private contractors working for the government department. He said that this is not the first time that the state govt had to face such humiliation. Several other departments in the past have also been involved in late payment to the contractors and the civil court judges have given the judgment in their favor. The Govt department officials are notorious for late payment. Because of their lackluster attitude towards the work they cause such embarrassment to the Government.
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