CHENNAI: Arappor Iyakkam, an anti-corruption NGO, has accused officials of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) and Food Corporation of India (FCI) of colluding with a private company and its affiliates to enable cartelisation in the contracts for transporting paddy and other grains in trucks.
They also alleged that the contracts were awarded to the company and its affiliated entities at an inflated price, causing significant loss to the exchequer. The NGO has filed complaints with the CBI, ED, I-T department, and DVAC.
The NGO said the local lorry transporters had previously transported paddy at Rs 329 per tonne for the first eight km until 2021. However, a state-level committee comprising officials from TNCSC, FCI and others set the paddy transportation rate at Rs 598 per metric tonne, significantly higher than the scheduled rate of Rs 288.
Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of Arappor Iyakkam, said on Tuesday that tender norms were manipulated by introducing “unrealistic” conditions. He explained until 2019, tender norms required a minimal prior experience in transporting for TNCSC. However, in the recent tender, this was modified to prior experience equivalent to 25% of the tender value in a single contract or 50% of the tender value over multiple contracts in the preceding three years.
Venkatesan further revealed he visited the offices of the three companies that were awarded the contracts and found them to be operating out of small 10x10 rooms with single computers and printers purely for billing purposes.
TNIE’s efforts to reach TNCSC officials went in vain.