The Madras High Court on Thursday warned the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) to hesitate to cancel the tender notification of ₹ 1,330 crore issued on February 8 for the supply of 20 lakh tonnes of imported steam coal of any origin. Will not do If it finds evidence of any foul play.
The court allowed a PIL to file additional material in support of its allegations and directed Tangdeco to be ready with its response until next week.
Interim order
The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamurthy said in an interim order that it was easy for anyone to suspect corrupt conduct and create an atmosphere of suspicion.
However, it was a completely different matter to produce hard facts before the court to establish charges.
The judges said that in the present case, the frequent practice of inviting bids for high-value tenders by Tangdeco on a short notice certainly casts doubt, the judges said.
In addition, noting that public sector units should be given a degree of elbow room to function independently, the judges said, nevertheless, such games in pairs would cause rioting and damage. Cannot be used as an excuse by government establishments for. Allowing a group of people from the government treasury to benefit from the government treasury. The judges also took Tangedco seriously, following adverse notice from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in 2017.
PIL, a retired assistant engineer of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB), c. Was filed by Selvaraj, who also served as the general secretary of the TNEB Engineers Association for many years. E. Vijay Anand, Assistant Senior Counsel for Vijay Anand, appeared on his behalf and insisted on ordering a joint inquiry by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC). In an alleged scam in coal imports for thermal power stations.
Mr. Vijayan told the court that Tangdeco had initially given only 15 days to bid, for the supply of 20 lakh tonnes of imported coal, against the expected minimum period of 30 days. When it was challenged by a private company before a single judge of the High Court, Tangdeco issued a surplus and extended the period to 15 more days. Furthermore, the tender clauses were only cleverly written in favor of the participation of foreign suppliers, they claimed.
Mentioning the requirement that bidders should have export licenses issued by the country from where coal will be procured, he said that no Indian supplier can be expected to obtain export licenses from abroad is. He also said that Tangdeco had a checked history of causing huge losses to the government exchequer by importing steam coal at high cost to run domestic thermal power stations and therefore not allowing it to go ahead with current imports should be given. He stated that the CAG had found in its 2017 report that avoidable expenditure of ₹ 746.13 crore was incurred by Tangedco as it did not invite and evaluate bids for import of coal at variable price method. The report also stated that the failure of the supplier to independently verify the accuracy of the gross calorific value furnished resulted in an undue profit of ₹ 813.68 crore to the supplier.
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