Coimbatore : Responding to the writ petition filed by Arappor Iyakkam, an NGO seeking action in the Corporation tender scam at the Chennai and Coimbatore Corporations, High Court Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and P. Rajamanickam in a suo motu action included Corporations of Coimbatore Chennai and Municipal Administration Secretary as respondents, and ordered notices to them returnable by January 23.
Coimbatore : Responding to the writ petition filed by Arappor Iyakkam, an NGO seeking action in the Corporation tender scam at the Chennai and Coimbatore Corporations, High Court Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and P. Rajamanickam in a suo motu action included Corporations of Coimbatore Chennai and Municipal Administration Secretary as respondents, and ordered notices to them returnable by January 23.
The Madras High Court on Friday also sought the response of Municipal Administration, Minister S.P. Velumani to the same petition seeking a First Information Report (FIR) filed against him for having allegedly helping his close aides in bidding for municipal corporation contracts and thus securing them the said contracts.
The HC also ordered a notice to be sent to Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) to which the direction for registering FIR was sought.
Aroppor Iyakkam, represented by its Managing trustee, Jayaram Venkatesan created a flutter in September 2018 when the organisation allegedly exposed the tender scam happening in Coimbatore and Chennai Corporations.
The NGO accused Minister S.P.Velumani of colluding with his close aides and benamies in bidding for the tenders called for by the Chennai and Coimbatore Corporations, worth several crores. On September 12, Arappor Iyakkam also submitted substantial evidence to DVAC seeking action against the Minister and his benamies.
But the organisation claims that no action was taken in this regard by DVAC. Hence, Arappor Iyakkam submitted a writ petition in November at the Madras High Court on the same.
In its affidavits, the NGO has stated that it has in its possession, documents to prove collusive bidding and intentional alteration of tender specifications to aid specific bidders and exclude other contractors from bidding. Their counsel during the hearing on Friday, also pointed out that the collusion could be proved through the fact that different bids were uploaded from the same Internet Protocol (IP) address.
The NGO claims to have obtained information through the Right to Information act (2015) from various governmental bodies.
Speaking on this Jayaram stated, "After exposing the tender scam involving the Minister and the four companies, he was associated with, we submitted all supportive evidence to the Department of vigilance and anti corruption. However, until end of November, no action was initiated".
"Following which, we filed a writ petition at the Madras HC. We have named DVAC as the first respondent, State of TamilNadu represented by Chief secretary as the second respondent, Central Bureau of Investigation as the third and Minister S.P.Velumani as the fourth respondent. Now, the Justices have included the Corporations of Chennai, Coimbatore and the Municipal administration Secretary as respondents to the writ petition and have ordered for notices to be sent to the concerned parties", he noted.
Arapoor claims that apart from Chennai, there are close to 188 tenders valued at hundreds of crores in Coimbatore Corporation which have been rigged. We have proof for all our allegations. Hence, we demand appropriate action be initiated the concerned officials.
The NGO also requested the High Court for a time-bound, independent and court-monitored probe by forming a Special Investigation Team (SIT) since the civil contracts involve huge amount of exchequer's money.