Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has demanded that the State government cancel the first phase of tenders called for head works and intake well structures as part of the massive drinking water grid project, alleging that large-scale irregularities have taken place in it.
He wanted the government to invite fresh bids in a transparent manner as the bids filed already indicated, he felt, that they were decided by the powers that be for commissions. The party would proceed legally if there was no positive response from the government over the next few days, Mr. Reddy told a press conference here on Tuesday.
“If companies file bids with amounts lesser than what is quoted by the government as the estimated cost of the work, they will do it by quoting less with good percentage ranging at least from 5 to 25. But, in case of water grid works bidders quoted less by lesser than one percentage”, Mr. Reddy noted.
The pattern in which the bids were quoted less at 0.3 pc, 0.1 pc, 0.8 pc, 0.7 pc or 0.12 pc, for example, clearly points to manipulation, the TPCC chief said stating that all it was done to benefit one particular bidder.
“The party in power (TRS) which fought against the exploitation by Andhra leaders and contractors during the movement for separate statehood is now trying to benefit an Andhra company,” he alleged and sought to know how the government would justify it. Besides, the government was keeping everything about the Rs.40,000 crore project top secret, as neither basic details nor detailed project report were being made available on the designated websites or physically in spite of the Congress party raising the issue on the floor of the Assembly, the TPCC president pointed out. The project cost that was quoted at Rs.25,000 crore by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao at Karimnagar in August last year was gradually enhanced to Rs.30,000 crore in September, Rs.35,000 crore in October and to the present cost, he said.
