Chennai: Leaders of the opposition parties have welcomed the Union government’s decision to cancel the tenders for the Rs 1,950-crore BharatNet project undertaken by the Tamilnadu Fibernet Corporation Limited (TANFINET), following allegations of irregularities.
DMK president M K Stalin said, ‘Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami should give an appropriate explanation on this cancellation of the tender.’
AMMK founder TTV Dhinakaran said, ‘it is a welcome move. Irregularities will come out one after one hereafter’.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said in a letter that a meeting was held on 23 June via video-conferencing led by the Additional Secretary of the DPIIT and attended by officers from the government of Tamilnadu, TANFINET and the Arappor Iyakkam, a Chennai-based NGO whichi alleged irregularities, Tejas Networks and TEPC, New Delhi
‘Based upon comments/feedback received from stakeholders, it has been considered that the bidding conditions incorporated by TANFINET in the bidding documents are restrictive and discriminatory in nature. As such, TANFINET should scrap the tender and re-invite the bids with non-restrictive qualification criteria,’ the letter said.
The Centre is inquiring into the alleged non-compliance of Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017, in the floating of the tenders and its specifications.
Last month, the DPIIT had called for an urgent report on the serious allegations levelled by Arappor Iyakkam on the tender process. The issue pertained to violation of the tender conditions by increasing the turnover, experience and tweaking configuration of routers to suit two specific companies and thereby eliminating competition through the issue of a corrigendum to the tender floated by TANFINET and the IT Department on 15 April.