Civil Secretariat: Govt sets Feb deadline
Simplex says pay liabilities first
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 27 2018: Whereas the State Government has asked the Simplex Project Limited (SPL) to finish the construction work of Civil Secretariat, Chingmeirong Lei Ingkhol in February next year, the firm has expressed strong desire for the State Government to first release all pending liabilities.

According to the PWD (Building Division) Chief Engineer, SPL has been asked in clear terms to fully complete the Civil Secretariat construction work by the last of February next year.

In spite of the repeated insistence by the department, the construction work has made little progress.

Only around 70 labourers are seen engaged in the construction work currently.

Even as the State Government directed SPL to engage more labourers, the firm has been asking the State Government to first release pending liabilities amounting to around Rs 2.4 crore for construction of Sanjenthong bridge, JNIMS buildings, Thoubal market and Khongjom War Memorial.

In response, PWD told SPL that a representation has been submitted to the Government to release pending liabilities of the works executed earlier and the same would be released within the next couple of days.

The department also invited SPL to come for a joint verification regarding the firm's grievances on bills but there was no response from SPL to the invitation, said the source.

On the other hand, the pending liabilities and the Civil Secretariat work are not connected.

For the Civil Secretariat, there is already Rs 40 crore in account 8443 and the Chief Minister recently deposited Rs 50 crore taking the total available fund to Rs 90 crore, said the source.

Meanwhile, the high power committee headed by the Chief Secretary as Chairman held a review meeting on the work progress of the Civil Secretariat this morning.

However, no SPL official came to the high power committee's meeting, added the source.

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