The Aurangabad High Court has issued a notice to the Maharashtra government two weeks after it raised the lower limit for certain e-tenders in the state from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. The state had in 2014 issued a resolution mandating that all government works worth more than Rs 3 lakh conducted in the state would have to go through the e-tendering process to find contractors. This was meant to increase transparency and reduce discretionary allotment of work by government departments.
However, on July 12, the government modified this resolution to permit works paid for by the funds of Members of Parliament and of the Legislative Assembly to have a higher limit.
According to the new resolution, MPs and MLAs can now ask for works under a number of schemes listed in the document to be done through an offline tendering process. This leaves the field open for them to push for contracts to be given to people of their selection.
Two Latur-based activists, Vithal Hajgude and Rahul Maknikar, challenged the new resolution in court and have sought for it to be quashed. The next hearing will be in four weeks.
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