Family members of councillors of the Chennai Corporation have been found using force to prevent contractors from participating in tenders for civic work in the city. Following a complaint by a group of contractors of the Chennai Corporation on Thursday, the civic body decided to cancel the tender that was finalised on Wednesday without participation from other contractors.
The Corporation will float tenders once again for work in zone VIII (Anna Nagar).
“The decision to cancel the tender was taken after the Tender Sale Clerk admitted to the Mayor and Commissioner that he was prevented from accepting tenders from other contractors by Bavani Shankar, the husband of a councillor in zone VIII,” honorary president of Corporation of Chennai Contractors Welfare Association, R. Ramarao, said.
Officials have said they will take appropriate action, he added.
According to the petition submitted by the contractors, “councillors and persons associated with them threatened the contractors who were willing to take part in tender.”
“After preventing contractors from participating in the tender, the councillors facilitated a person of their choice to carry out the work,” the contractors alleged in their petition.
The contractors have requested the civic body's officials to put an end to political interference so that the work is implemented properly.
Corporation Commissioner D. Karthikeyan said that he had conducted an inquiry and has cancelled the tender as “prima facie there is some truth in it.”
