Repairs start without tenders

sodepur: throwing all rules to the winds, the panihati municipality has awarded contract for repair of a road without even caring to float a tender. it was only after this newspaper began making inquiries that the authorities chose it prudent to publish the tender notice in the cpm mouthpiece ganashakti in its october 10 issue. but, by then, about 50 per cent of the work was already completed.documents in possession of this newspaper show that the repair of the 1.5 km long natagarh main road, to be done in four phases, would cost the municipality about rs 18,00,000. how could a contractor be employed for work involving such a big sum, without a tender? the chairman of the municipality, manoranjan sarkar, had a crisp answer. journalists do not need to know so much. we will do whatever we think is necessary. we are not bound to pass on information to newspapers, he said. and how does the contractor feel, when he has been spending money from his own pocket and has almost completed repair work between sulekha more to hb town in wards 22 and 33? after all, the contract might not go in his favour and in such a case all his hard earned money would be lost. but gautam chatterjee of chatterjee constructions remained cool in the face of the controversy. i will take care of it, he said unperturbed. he will submit quotations like others, said the chairman. but what happens if chatterjee's quotation is not accepted? or is it so that only his quotation will be accepted? the chairman refused to comment. even the tender notice (no pm/pwd/07/2001-02/355) appears intriguing. it mentions the quantum of fund to be spent, the 'earnest' money that will be required and the time frame within which the work will have to be completed. what it does not mention, significantly, is the most important information - the amount of work the contractor will have to do. how will the contractor decide whether to accept the job or not ? the chairman has no answer. yet, the same tender notice has not forgotten to mention the amount of work to be done in case of other roads which will be repaired. for example, the tender notice clearly mentions that the repair of the south station road will be done in four phases - from nilgunj road to matangini hazra crossing, from matangini hazra crossing to salpata bagan, from salpata bagan to malakarpara and from malakarpara to agarpara railway station. embarrassed though by allegations of rampant corruption against the left controlled municipality, local cpm leader subhas sengupta claimed that even if there was slight deviations from the rules, it is being done in the interest of the local people. a resident of natagarh himself, sengupta said that he would talk to the municipality chairman about the issue.