NHAI superintending engineer’s office assets seized over unpaid dues in Odisha

Furniture, fixtures, and other movable assets of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) superintending engineer (SE)’s office were attached and later seized on Wednesday under a court order issued in Sambalpur over unpaid dues to a construction company.

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This is why the superintending engineer faced action

According to sources, the court had ordered the attachment of all movable properties within the office, and acting on it, the seizure was conducted in the presence of court officials. Orient Construction Private Limited is to get approximately Rs 70 lakh for roadwork carried out in the Keonjhar district. The construction company had previously filed a legal complaint upon not receiving the payment for undisclosed reasons, for quite a long time.

The Senior Civil Judge of Sambalpur directed in 2013 that the dues be cleared. However, years passed without settlement. Adjusted for current rates, the outstanding amount has now reached Rs 1.42 crore. Due to this continued non-payment, the court ordered the attachment of office furniture belonging to the SE and the executive engineer.

“We had got a work order in 2007 to carry out a road construction work in Keonjhar district. Despite the completion of the work, our payment was not cleared for long. We had earlier filed a case in 2009 over non-payment of the dues. Now, the court has ordered for recovery of the dues,” the contract firm’s legal counsel Sauri Ranjan Padhi expressed to OTV.

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“The seized properties will be auctioned to raise the requisite funds. However, if the funds will be insufficient to meet the total outstanding amount, then, assets of the executive engineer’s office will be attached,” the legal counsel Padhi further stated.