HC junks road tenders floated bypassing local bodies

Setting aside the government submission that the process to carry on with the work started even before the elected body assumed charge, Justice N Anand Venkatesh said,, “A reading of the letter written by the Director of Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj on August 18, 2020, to all the District Collectors shows that only during August 2020, the process of finalisation of the road list had started and what was sought to be utilised was the second instalment of the funds provided by FFC for 2019-20.”

Pointing out that the letter was placed in the budget only during February 2020 and hence it cannot be claimed that the initiation of work had started even before the elected body took charge, Justice Venkatesh said, “The elected body was very much in-charge even before the budget allocation and the discussion that took place in the Assembly. A careful reading of the letter on June 17, 2020 clearly establishes the fact that the district authorities were independently acting on the instructions given by the government to identify link roads and to carry on with the work.”

On noting that the elected body was completely sidelined and brought into the picture only at the time of counter-signing the cheque, Justice Venkatesh said, “This clearly goes against the constitutional scheme as well as the provisions of the Act. This will go against the very object of the Panchayati Raj System. The only way to improve the system is to recognise their independence and empower them to take independent decisions and implement the same.”

Based on this, Justice Anand Venkatesh held, “this court has absolutely no hesitation to interfere with the tender process initiated by the State, and the entire process shall stand terminated.”

The tenders in question relates to the sanction of Rs 399.33 crore worth road work to be taken up by using the second instalment of the FFC funds meant for 2019-20, for improving the Village Panchayat Roads.