A writ plea has been made in the Madras High Court for a direction to the dairy department to maintain transparency in inviting tenders for transportation of milk from the cooperative societies in villages to chilling units in the city.
According to petitioner A Mahammed, proprietor of Jareen Industries, the firm is engaged in transporting milk to chilling stations in Chennai and other places.
The district federations attached to the TN Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited in Madhavaram floated tenders for hiring of vehicles for transportation of milk to the chilling centre in Chennai. There were large scale violations and malpractices in the issuance of tender and scrutiny. The entire process was a farce, the petitioner contended and prayed for a direction to the authorities concerned to frame common guidelines and instructions in accordance with the provisions of TN Transparency in Tenders Act. The interim prayer was to direct the authorities to conduct an e-auction in hiring of specialised tankers for milk transportation.
Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar, before whom the writ petition came up for hearing on Thursday, adjourned it by a week.