The High Court told the Andhra Pradesh government that it may have to stay payment to the contractor who executed the Pattiseema Project. The court gave time to the government to file an affidavit.
A division bench of Hyderabad High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice P. Naveen Rao on Monday did not appreciate the action of the State government in relaxing various limits and deciding to pay incentive to contractor who is executing the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Project.
The bench was dealing with PIL filed by Vasireddy Srinivas, a journalist of the city, questioning the action of the State government in relaxing five per cent cap limit over the estimated contract value (ECV) of the project to provide an incentive of Rs. 262 crore to the company executing the contract. The court was told that the project cost was initially estimated as Rs. 1,170 crore and period of contract is 12 months and later it was awarded Rs. 1,427 crore by relaxing 5 per cent cap limit.
Incentive
The State government told that works were given to the Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd as it quoted 21.9 per cent less than the estimated value and to encourage the contract company to complete the project within time limit, the government decided to give incentive. The bench said that the payment may have to be stayed and granted time for the government to file counter affidavit. The case will be listed on Monday.
