Centre puts Rs 2,000 crore Tamil Nadu project on hold over NGO complaint

Siddharth Prabhakar | TNN | Updated: May 2, 2020, 05:37 IST

Tamil Nadu IT minister RB Udhayakumar

CHENNAI: The Centre has put the state government’s Rs 2,000-crore project for laying optic fibre network across Tamil Nadu on hold after complaints from Chennai-based Arappor Iyakkam on irregularities in the project tender.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), which falls under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in a communication dated April 30 to TN chief secretary has asked for a report on the complaint filed by the NGO. The agency has asked the state to examine the grievance and not to finalise procurement till the issue is addressed by a competent authority.
The state government, through the Tamil Nadu Fibrenet Corporation Limited, had floated a tender for BharatNet.
Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of Arappor Iyakkam, had complained that vide a corrigendum in mid-April, the state government had tweaked the tender condition which restricted competition. According to Jayaram, the changes made by the government to increase tender conditions on turnover and experience would make only a few big companies eligible.
State’s IT minister rejects allegation of irregularities
The NGO had sent complaints to chief minister, chief secretary, department of telecommunications, department of promotion of industry and internal trade, central vigilance commission and the competition commission of India.
Tamil Nadu IT minister RB Udhayakumar, however, had rejected the allegations.
The DPIIT in its letter said, ‘All the procurement agencies are required to certify compliance of its orders before uploading tenders and that disciplinary action may be considered against erring officers where restrictive conditions against domestic manufacturers have been imposed in malafide fashion.’
Jayaram demanded that the CM, chief secretary and dept of telecommunications cancel the corrigendum which, according to him, is unfair, irrational, arbitrary, malafide and against public interest and initiate action against officials responsible for this.
Retired IAS official MG Devasahayam said he was closely following the issue and alleged that it was being tailored to ‘compensate’ a major TN-based company which the state had penalised in another issue. “It’s a shame that the government has brought in tender changes when there is a graveyard like atmosphere due to Covid-19, ” he said.
The tender conditions had been vetted by 15 government secretaries on the TN Infrastructure Development Board (TNIDB), Devasahayam said.