The Legislative Assembly on Friday passed the A.P. Infrastructure (Transparency through Judicial Preview) Bill, 2019, paving the way for scrutiny of projects estimated to cost more than ₹100 crore by a committee headed by a sitting or retired judge to be appointed by the High Court.
It is for ensuring that all infrastructure projects, including Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), are in compliance with the procedures, rules and guidelines laid down by the State and the Central governments. Its underlying objective is to check corruption by optimally utilising the public resources (taxpayers’ money) and adopting efficient methods like reverse tendering.
As per this path-breaking legislation, the tender documents would be kept in public domain for a week for obtaining suggestions, and the committee would take a decision in eight days thereafter.
The Bill enables the government to provide experts to the judge for lending technical assistance or the judge to pick up experts of his or her choice. Any component that is segregated, divided or tendered separately but forming part of the original work will be deemed as an integral part of the project.
‘Unprecedented’
Making a statement on the Bill, which was moved by Minister for Industries and IT, Mekapati Gowtham Reddy, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said it (the Bill) was unprecedented in India and expressed confidence that a similar mechanism would be adopted in other States and that it would send a message to the world that A.P. government was committed to getting rid of corruption through such concrete measures.
The government could ill afford to remain a spectator as corruption became rampant as A.P. already had the dubious distinction of being the most corrupt State according to a survey done by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), he observed.
Corruption
Mr. Jagan said the large-scale corruption witnessed in the last five years prompted the government to take up the bold decision to involve the judiciary for cleaning up the system thereby building confidence among the stakeholders that they would have a level-playing field.
He pointed out that the construction of the Assembly building was a big scandal as the previous government had shelled down a staggering ₹10,000 per square foot against ₹2,000 which could be the highest rate as per any standard.
There were many such massive irregularities in the last five years. The government had, therefore, resolved to curb the menace of corruption and take firm steps instead of confining itself to rhetoric, he asserted.
Earlier, Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy cited the scandal that allegedly took place in the development of a ‘business district’ in 1,690 acres in Amaravati as an example of the corruption that became a hallmark of the TDP Government, which amended the A.P. Infrastructure Development Enabling Act for doing real estate business with a host of companies, which included the Singapore consortium of Ascendas-Singbridge and Jurong.