The State government has tightened tender rules for procuring bicycles to be distributed free of cost for class 8 students in government and aided high school.
This is owing to the supply of bicycles under similar schemes at a much lower price in many other States.
Briefing the Cabinet decisions, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra said the State government had procured about 5.5 lakh bicycles, each costing Rs. 3,650.
However, bicycles under a similar scheme in Rajasthan were procured at Rs. 2,780, Himachal Pradesh Rs. 2,621 and West Bengal Rs. 3,200. The Cabinet discussed at length about this disparity and decided to impose stringent tender conditions on the price and quality of bicycles to ensure that they are purchased from manufacturers’ at the most competitive price compared to other States.
The Cabinet expressed concern over the “excess price” paid over the years in the scheme, which was launched in 2006-07.
New tender conditions have been imposed to prevent cartelisation in tendering process and get the bicycles at a price on a par with the lowest price at which they are supplied in other States, Mr. Jayachandra said.
Rules framed
The Cabinet has decided to frame special rules to prevent exploitation of contract workers engaged in various civic bodies in the State. Presently, more than 32,000 workers are facing problems of getting low salary, irregular payment of salary and lack of labour welfare benefits.
The proposed special rules would enable the government to open accounts for them and credit the salary directly, which will ensure prompt payment of salary every month, he said.
These workers would be slowly absorbed as regular employees, while recruiting the staff in future. However, he ruled out one-time regularisation of all 32,000 workers.
Deposits
It was decided to utilise the illegally deposited Rs. 495.88 crore in various bank accounts for execution of drinking water projects. Officials of the Rural Drinking Water Department of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj had illegally deposited the amount in various bank accounts and a probe was ordered.
Crop insurance
The State government has decided to release its share of Rs. 675.38 crore for implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (Prime Minister’s Crop Insurance Scheme), which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2016. Both the State and Union governments share 50 per cent each.
