VIJAYAWADA: The high court, in an interim order on Monday, asked the state government to make payments under NREGS to the petitioners within two weeks and submit a report to the court.
Observing that non-payment of bills for works done under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was nothing but taking away the right to live life with dignity and respect, the court said it is also in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution.
More than 500 petitions were filed before the high court over non-payment of bills for works done under NREGS prior to 2019.
The petitioners complained that the state government was not paying bills to which they were entitled and was depriving them of their right to life.
They said they are facing severe hardships as they could not pay the workers and repay the loans secured to procure materials to complete the works.
The high court had earlier asked the Union government to submit details of funds that it has released to AP under NREGS. Contrary to the claims of the state government stating they could not make the payments as they are yet to receive funds from the Centre, the latter filed an affidavit stating that they have released funds from time-to-time, and as per the utilisation certificate submitted on April 1, 2021, the state government is having 1,991 crore of unspent funds.
The court wondered why the state government has not made payments to the petitioners which they are legitimately entitled to and depriving their rights. Justice Battu Devanand further noted that the government did not submit proper and satisfactory details pertaining to the works done and payments made till date despite taking sufficient time.
