SHILLONG: The Opposition Congress in Meghalaya has questioned the transparency maintained by the NPP-led MDA government as it alleged the tender for implementation of Saubhagya scheme was mired with controversy since day one.
In this connection, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) has called for the need for proper and independent investigation to verify the criminal intent of the political executive of the State Government to misuse the government schemes.
In a statement issued here, Congress Legislature Party, spokesperson, HM Shangpliang said Saubhagya scheme guidelines issued by the Central Government had given a deadline of December 31, 2017 for award of projects and the first deadline for completion of projects is December 31, 2018.
However, the state of Meghalaya issued a tender for the project only on September 26, 2018. He pointed to the complete deviation from normal transparent bidding process reflective of predetermined malafide intention for favoritism.
He alleged that the terms of the tender were so high that none of the existing contractors and no contractors from Meghalaya qualified to place a bid- and the time given for bidding for this project was eight days.
According to him, the terms of the tender raised many eyebrows, as the Congress alleged it was crafted in a manner to exclude all but a few favored contractors whose names were leaked in newspaper reports.
In this connection, writ petitions were filed in the High Court by agitated contractors. However, the State government continued to insist that the terms were necessary for meeting the deadline for completion of the project.
Considering the allegations that were raised, the High Court stayed the entire tender process.
Again, the state government revealed before the High Court that only four eligible bids were received by it.
Shangpliang alleged that a certain contractor about which news reports had been circulating as being the pre-selected contractor and for whom the tender had been designed, was also one of the bidders.
The Congress also expressed shock that the petitioner had withdrawn the writ petition mysteriously allowing the government to escape by cancelling the tender.
Prior to the incident, the State government filed a request before the High Court to allow it to withdraw and cancel the tender.
“Whereas no reason for withdrawal of the petition was given, it is not difficult to understand there might be external factors or pressure behind this sudden withdrawal,” Shangpliang said.
Again, he pointed to another strange event regarding a notification issued by the Governor on November 28, 2018 to release P.S. Thangkhiew, Additional Chief Secretary and Chairman of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd., from his post.