The State government is actively considering the prospect of entrusting the responsibility of printing the Pattadar passbooks of farmers to more than one agency.
The government has already invited tenders for printing the passbooks containing 23 security features and the last date for submission of the bids ended on January 22. Request for proposal has been issued for preparing the passbooks with features like chemical sensitised high tear and water resistant paper, specialised industrial cloth cover, high resolution text printing, anti-copying invisible UV fibres and ultra thin sandwich label among others.
Unique code
They would comprise a 13-digit unique code specifying the district, mandal village codes along with confidential digits in addition to last four digits forming the passbook serial number of the particular village. The government had entrusted the Telangana State Technology Corporation for scrutinising the bids and security printing press had been nominated as technical adviser for the proposed passbook. The technical evaluation of the bids is under process and the officials concerned are hopeful of completing the process soon.
According to senior officials, the option of awarding works to multiple bidders had been kept open given the huge volume of passbooks that should be printed before the deadline March 11, the day Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao wanted the officials to complete their distribution to all eligible farmers at one go.
“The lowest bidder will get the major share in the work say 60 % and the remaining work will be distributed among other bidders, provided they agree to do it at the price quoted by L1,” a senior official said.
Short time
The proposal to award work to more than one bidder has been considered as it would ensure completion of the work before the deadline. “The books had to be printed and moved to the respective mandals and villages ahead of the March 11 deadline so that they will be ready for distribution on the date set by the government,” a senior official said.
The technical bid evaluation team, comprising experts including those nominated by the security printing press, is currently assessing the capacity of the bidders to undertake such a massive task as well as their capability to incorporate the security features prescribed by the government. “Once the evaluation is completed, works will be entrusted to successful bidder (s) with specific time frame,” the official said.
