Officials draw flak for floating limited tenders in Kancheepuram panchayat

Chennai: The state rural development department on Tuesday drew flak for continuing the practice of floating limited tenders, where only few hours are given to contractors to participate. This is a move that's usually associated with pre-fixing contractors instead of open bidding.The department in Konnerikuppam panchayat in Kancheepuram district floated a tender worth 16.83 lakh to build an overhead tank of 30,000 litres. But the tender, which went live on Tuesday at 9am, had just six hours for contractors to apply. Ideally, two to seven days are given for contractors to apply.Rural development minister N Anand was unavailable for comment. M Radhakrishnan, an activist from anti-corruption NGO Arappor Iyakkam, questioned the rationale behind the short window. "This implies nothing but contractors being pre-selected locally. They should ideally give time for more people to participate, and bidding must happen. This tendering culture has existed for long. Since it is a small work, it may be done by some local panchayat official. Whoever is behind this must be pulled up," he said.The limited tenders by the rural development department come in the wake of GCC filing similar tenders to rent earthmover machines for Perungudi zone.He said the govt too doesn't upload work orders on the website for residents to see who took the tender award. Greater Chennai Contractors Association president R Ramarao said construction of an overhead tank is task-intensive and demands high quality of construction, for which limited tenders cannot be awarded. "Before the e-tender era, limited tenders were important for smaller projects because as per tender rules, all registered contractors must be issued physical notices for a tender. There were 300 contractors in Chennai, and it was a time-consuming process for them to receive notices and respond," he said. "Now, with e-tender, tenders are uploaded online, and any contractor can see and participate. What's the need to restrict timing," he asked.