Opp targets govt over lottery tender

SHILLONG: The state government has drawn flak from opposition parties over the lottery fiasco.
The United Democratic Party (UDP) has questioned the government’s tendering process for operating lottery days after the High Court found irregularities in the clauses.
UDP senior leader Jemino Mawthoh, while questioning the timing of the lottery tender, said, “There is something going on.”
Mawthoh said the state government chose the time before the elections with an intention to mobilise resources.
“There are so many ways of revenue realisation but a lot of things are happening suddenly before election,” he said.
There are several grey areas in the tender, for example, it does not clarify whether it is inviting bids for paper lottery or online. Also, one of the bidders has alleged nexus between an influential person in the government and a company, Gaming India Distributor Ltd and J. Geetha.The High Court will hear the case on January 24.
When contacted, NPP state president WR Kharlukhi said there are many scams under the present Congress-led government. “What to say about these scams, even the basin development initiative is a big scam,” he added.
The state Cabinet on November 21 approved the proposal to operate lottery after a gap of eight years.
Within nine days on November 30, the Notice Inviting Tender was issued but the tender conditions were supplied only on December 7.
Later, the date for receiving the bids was fixed at 12 noon on December 19 and to open the technical bids at 12.30 pm and then the financial bids at 2 pm.
The court had heard three petitions which had questioned clauses 7 and 8 in the tender which, according to the petitioners, are not only incompatible but are designed to extend undue advantage to some of the prospective bidders while causing prejudice to the other bona fide bidders.