A petition filed in the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has claimed that the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) wasted Rs 2.40 crore of
public money in awarding a contract for supply of 300 buses to Tata Motors. The corporator who filed the plea has said that the NMC traffic engineer had recommended cancellation of the Tata tender since the company had not met the conditions mentioned under JNNURM. However, the same company was awarded the contract again in the re-tendering process.
The petitioner corporator Satish Hole has taken objection to the corporation's move, saying that NMC had no right to waste public money like this and collect more revenue by exorbitantly hiking property, water tax and octroi.
A division bench comprising justices AP Lavande and Pramod Kode issued notices to respondents including state urban development department, NMC standing committee chairman, Union ministry of urban development, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and Vansh Nimay Infrastructure Projects Limited. The respondents were asked to file reply before November 25.
Counsel for the petitioner UA Patil said that NMC and the state government had taken a decision to city transportation services from Maharashtra Sate Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) through Vansh Nimay and accordingly passed a resolution. Later, the Central government floated a scheme under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), under which the civic body received funds for infrastructure projects in the city. NMC officials then decided to purchase 300 buses and invited quotations from Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland in March. It offered the contract to Tatas for manufacturing 240 big and 60 minibuses without the standing panel's approval.
After the corporators objected, the commissioner decided to conduct an enquiry through them and its traffic engineer, on whether the buses are as per conditions mentioned by JNNURM. The NMC traffic engineer's report had recommended cancellation of the tender.
Finally, as the prototype of the bus given by Tatas was not up to the mark, NMC cancelled its contract. Re-tendering process took place, where again Tatas and Ashok Leyland filled the tenders and the contract went to the former after the standing panel's approval on August 24.
The petitioner has contended that the corporation should have blacklisted the respondent for not adhering to the specifications by the Centre. However, it was still awarded the contract at a higher cost to NMC.
Citing violation of CNC Act, 1948, the petitioner said the NMC's move is completely illegal, arbitrary and mala fide. He prayed for quashing of the standing panel's resolution of August 24 where it had allotted contract to Tata Motors. He also placed the traffic engineer's report before the court, which recommends cancellation of the tender.