Amritsar, July 20
Payments worth crores of rupees to various government departments have been stopped on verbal orders issued by the director, treasury, to the district treasury officers (DTOs) in the state.
The DTOs were directed not to clear contingency bills, except bills pertaining to regular salaries, pensions, medical bills and court cases. Director, Treasury, Megh Raj, while admitting that verbal orders had been issued, refused to give the reasons for the same. To repeated queries, he asked this correspondent to contact D.S. Kalah, principal secretary, Finance, on the pretext that only he was the competent authority to reveal the reasons for stopping the contingency bills.
Such orders, especially after four and half months of the formation of the government, are being seen as unprecedented. However, the step to stop the payments clearly shows that the state government was facing a serious financial crunch.
Jagjit Singh, district treasury officer, Amritsar, admitted that he had received verbal orders from his superiors on July 18 to stop the payments except regular salaries, pensions, medical cases and those pertaining to court. The orders were amended next day, i.e. July 19, which included stopping payments of certain benefits to pensioners.
The senior officials who don’t want to come on record said the decision would hamper the working of the government departments. They said non-clearance of payments to contractors, etc. would spoil their credibility.
