Itanagar: The office of the Chief Engineer, PWD (Western Zone) of Arunachal Pradesh at Mowb-II near here has been sealed following court orders, for defaulting on payment to a contractor, according to an official.
"As per 'order' from the District Judge (Yupia), the sealing has been executed at the Chief Engineer's office,” Itanagar Capital Complex District Magistrate Talo Potom told reporters after the office was sealed on Saturday.
“This pertains to non-payment of contractor's bill despite completion of a project work dating back to 2013-14." he added. “Being the DM of Itanagar, I am executing the Court's order, and have nothing to say about how the CE office will function or what will happen.”
The technocrat-turned-bureaucrat Potom, who started his career as an engineer from the same office, however, expressed hope that the matter will be solved soon.
Mention may be made here that the PWD (Public Works Department) portfolio is being held by Chief Minister Pema Khandu himself. Following the sealing of the entire PWD Western Zone office complex, all the works of the office, which also houses the offices of the department's Central Zone and Senior Architecture, came to a grinding halt as the main gate was also sealed, the sources said.
Earlier, on February 10 District Judge (Yupia) Nani Grayu passed an order to seal the PWD WZ office after hearing a petitioner that pleaded for the auction of the office to realise the dues of a company.
On January 4, the Judge, in an order, directed the Capital Complex DM to attach/seal the office of PWD's Western Zone in a money execution petition (No 04/2019) filed by M/s Tama Fabrication Works against the state of Arunachal Pradesh and others.
The execution petition had been filed by the petitioner through its counsel J Doji for payment of an arbitral award of Rs 3,60,28,997 and interest thereof on October 21.
However, the previous order was not executed by the DM until a fresh directive came from the court on February 10 to seal the PWD WZ office immediately and submit a detailed list of properties belonging to it within one week. (UNI)