City Mayor made to stop tender process!

'In the process of tendering out the city road works, the GMC Act has been grossly violated. The Act says that if the amount of a proposal exceeds Rs 1 core, it has to be discussed at the general meeting of the Corporation. However, in the instant case of tendering out road works worth over Rs 2 crore, the proposal has not been discussed at any general meeting. How come the works be tendered out without any discussion at the general meeting? Is this done to favour the probable candidate of a particular party from Dispur LAC?' - BJP Councillors

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Dec 15: If politics loves to make mischief  and deprive genuine beneficiaries of their dues, it’s ruckus by conscious circles that can get things into right order. In a State like Assam where the writ of corrupt politicians runs everywhere, circles concerned need to be on full alert.

A section of alert BJP councillors of the civic body in Guwahati today prevented the City Mayor from going ahead with the process of tendering out contracts for as many as 13 roads of nine wards falling under the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) as they sniffed something fishy in the entire process.

The councillors had to gherao the office of the Mayor with the charge of favouring a particular probable candidate of Dispur LAC in the forthcoming Assembly elections slated for 2016. According to councillors, the works of most of the 13 roads fall in Dispur LAC, and this has been done to favour a particular candidate for the Assembly election of a party from the constituency. The councillors said that in order to lay more emphasis on Dispur so as to favour a particular probable candidate for Assembly elections, the other wards in the civic body have been deprived of benefits which they are supposed to get.

The councillors further said: “This is not all. In the process of tendering out the road works, the GMC Act has been grossly violated. The Act says that if the amount of a proposal exceeds Rs 1 core, it has to be discussed at the general meeting of the Corporation. However, in the instant case of tendering out road works worth over Rs 2 crore, the proposal has not been discussed at any general meeting. How come the works be tendered out without any discussion at the general meeting? Is this done to favour the probable candidate of a particular party from Dispur LAC?”

When the situation took a turn for the worse, City Mayor Abir Patra said: “I’m not aware of all such things. I’m quite ignorant of it.”

The Mayor, however, halted the process of tendering out the works of the 13 city toads.    

The BJP councillors raised the demand for the cancellation of the process of tendering out the works of the roads and calling of the general meeting of the civic body so as to discuss the issues and tender the works out afresh.