Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Friday introduced changes in road tenders worth crores to ensure motorways in the State are constructed without cash payments.
The State Public Works Department (PWD) changed tender norms to include ‘cashless’ clause in all road works, making it mandatory to make payments only through electronic banking methods like national electronic funds transfer (NEFT) and real-time gross settlement system (RTGS), senior officials said. “We want to construct all highways and roads by cashless means; this is in line with Centre’s digital India plans and making national economy cashless,” a senior official said.
The new clause will make it mandatory for contractors to adopt an ‘e-bill’ technology. Additionally, the companies constructing roads in the State will have to provide their staff and labour with a Unique Identification Number (UIN). “The UIN will be linked to the Aadhaar card of the labourers and the staff, and even payment of salaries will have to be made through this,” an official said. The contractor would also have to submit a certificate to that effect within 60 days from the commencement of contract. If the time period of contract is less than 60 days then the certificate would be submitted within 15 days from the date of commencement of contract, according to officials.
Earlier this month, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis approved a new 'cashless policy' in the State and directed all districts to implement it soon. The PWD would be the first to adopt this.
Under the new policy, the State has also decided to make electronic payments mandatory for government services, including payments in lower courts, tribunals, payments of cooperatives, housing societies, agriculture markets, municipal corporations, and autonomous bodies, among others.
