SHILLONG: As the State Government is being blamed for rushing Saubhagya scheme tender, Power Minister James Sangma who is on the backfoot has maintained that it is a time-bound scheme and the Government is doing everything to ensure that it meets the deadline.

Allegations of a hurried tender process have come to the fore regarding an electrification project worth several crores of rupees in the state and it is alleged that only eight days have been given for submission of the tender. The eight-day deadline includes weekends and Gandhi Jayanti, which means only 3 to 4 working days have been allotted for bidders to submit tender.
The tender was called on September 26 and the opening of bids will be on October 4.

Another allegation is that the bid document was favourable to two parties from outside the state, Satnam Global Infraprojects Ltd, Delhi and Patel Engineering, Delhi. In the tender qualification criteria, the stakes are too high and none of the local contractors from Meghalaya qualified.

However, the Power Minister said that even the tendering process for the scheme had not been completed,how come  someone could make such allegations

“ It is our priority to ensure that we meet deadline which has been set for us,” he added.

The Saubhagya scheme is to provide electricity to all households by December 31 this year and the project was announced in September 2017 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The project is aimed at cent percent household electrification through construction of a 11 KV line with ACSR weasel conductor, installation of distribution transformers and others.

While the financial package for Khasi and Jaintia Hills is Rs 187 crore, for Garo Hills it is Rs 196 crore.