A senior Maharashtra minister on Tuesday faced allegations of favouring a private contractor for a government contract.
During the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, the Opposition trained guns on the state’s Animal Husbandry Minister Mahadev Jankar, accusing him of “favouritism” in a multi-crore contract for cattle vaccination. At the heart of the controversy is a multi-crore contract for the vaccination of 2.09 lakh cattle in Maharashtra for prevention of the deadly foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).
Nationalist Congress Party’s Ajit Pawar, a former deputy chief minister, alleged on Tuesday that the contract was “tailored” to “suit a particular private contractor.” He alleged that Jankar’s personal secretary and a deputy secretary in the department had pressured the administrative machinery into awarding the contract to the contractor in question. “The tender (for the contract) was floated seven times before being awarded,” he said. He also named a senior official from the animal husbandry commissionerate as being involved in the controversy.
While the vaccination drive was meant to be conducted from July 2017 onwards and the tender was first issued in May last year, the contract was finally awarded to the private firm on February 23 this year. In between, the tender was recalled six times after being floated, which has fuelled the allegations. Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan also questioned the allotment of the contract, demanding a high-level probe. He questioned the justification being provided by the government over rejection of a bid that had been received from Indian Immunogicals Limited — a subsidiary of the Centre-run National Dairy Development Board — which is also the world’s largest FMD vaccine producer. Pawar, meanwhile, claimed that the beneficiary contractor had supplied the vaccines at lower rates in some other states.
Responding to the allegations, Jankar admitted to the delay in awarding the work. But he refuted allegations of corruption levelled against him. “There was no corruption in the contract. I’m being targeted for political reasons,” he said. The Opposition later staged a walkout over the issue, contending that it wasn’t satisfied with the reply from the government. Jankar is a founder president of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, a key BJP ally in Maharashtra.
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