Imphal, January 05: Although the State Finance Department has given the green signal for encashment of cheques of Public Health Engineering Department issued after March 2004, the encashment process has been delayed as none of the contractors have co-operated in the process to verify their cheques.

An official source informed that the Finance Department has given the encashment permission amounting to Rs 641.99 lakhs in respect of Public Health Engineering Department for the cheques issued on June 26, 2004 under Plan and CSS (ARWSP).

The validity of the encashment permission is said to be till January 15, 2005.Following the green signal from the Finance Department, Additional Chief Engineer of PHED issued an order entrusting Executive Engineer Ksh Lalitbabu of the Mechanical and Electrical Division of the Department to assist the bank in verifying the cheques.

But as none of the contractors have come forward to verify the cheques, the process of releasing the amount has been delayed, the official source said.

With the validity of the encashment permission nearing the expiry date, lack of co-operation on the part of the contractors has created unnecessary head- ache for all concerned, the official source said, adding that if the contractors do not verify their cheques, they would not be allowed to encash their cheques.

The CDA amount of the PHED for which encashment permission has been given include Rs 60 lakhs for Other Town Division and State Plan amount of Rs 5.30 lakhs for Imphal East, Rs 19 lakhs for Imphal West, Rs 47 lakhs for Thoubal, Rs 4.20 lakhs for Bishnupur, Rs 3 lakhs each for CCpur, Chandel, Senapati, Ukhrul and Tamenglong districts, Rs 6 lakhs for Maintenance-I, Rs 13 lakhs for Maintenance-II, Rs 6.80 lakhs for PCD, Rs 2 lakhs for IPD-I, Rs 11 lakhs for Electrical and Mechanical, Rs 1 lakh for D & S, Rs 1 lakh for Other Towns and Rs 68.70 lakhs for Store Division.

The details of ARWSP-CPS cheque amount for which encashment permission has been given by the Finance Department are Imphal East - Rs 3,199,000, Imphal West -Rs 1,100,000, Thoubal - Rs 9,950,000, Churachandpur - Rs 6,930,000, Ukhrul - Rs 1,400,000, Senapati - Rs 3,150,000, Tamenglong - Rs 2,800,000, Chandel - Rs 4,470,000 and Electrical & Mechanical - Rs 1,000,000.The source further disclosed that encashment of cheques issued before March, 2004 in respect of Public Works Department too has ran into rough water following certain problems.

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