Packaging of contracts challenged

Justice R Subbaiah before whom the petition filed by Tamil Nadu Highway Department Contractors Welfare Sangam came up, directed the Special Government Pleader R Sanjay Gandhi to file counter within a week and posted the matter for further hearing to February 18. 

The petitioner K Mohan submitted that despite several pleas and court directions, the Highways department has come up with a tender notification on January 12, 2016, which has reintroduced the ‘Package System’.

He said in the event of laying roads, the contracts are bagged by those who are eligible for undertaking works worth over Rs 2 crores. They use the paver finishing machine. On the other hand, the small contractors undertake works like constructing channels, footpath, storm water drains and others which are more labour-intensive and manual based. 

But reintroducing the package system wherein the contracts of both bigger and smaller works are clubbed together would result in only those contractors with paver finishing machines bagging the tenders, leaving the smaller contractors high and dry. 

He also noted that the package system was contrary to schemes like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Development Work, which insists on undertaking work using manual labour.