Graft plaint against Assembly Secretary

CHENNAI: A restaurant owner has sent a petition to Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker Avudaiyappan seeking action against Assembly Secretary M Selvaraj, for allegedly demanding a bribe of `10 lakh fo
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CHENNAI: A restaurant owner has sent a petition to Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker Avudaiyappan seeking action against Assembly Secretary M Selvaraj, for allegedly demanding a bribe of `10 lakh for awarding a three-year contract to run a food court inside the new MLA hostel.

C S Veeramani, who had been running Hotel Sowmiya Inn inside the MLA hostel, told reporters on Tuesday that there were several

irregularities in the tendering process to select the new contractor to run the food court and demanded transparency in the process.

Soon after he met the press, Selvaraj issued a two-page press release explaining how tenders were called and how no one qualified for the contract. Though he did not say anything on the charge that he demanded bribe, he made it clear that a restaurant would be opened soon and that it would be run by the Secretariat Cooperative canteen.

Veeramani, who was running the food court from 2006 to 2008 by paying an annual rent of `18 lakh, said his contract was renewed for 2009 and 2010 and that he even made a part-payment of `4 lakh to the Assembly secretary, seeking time for paying `5 lakh for continuing the contract.

However, Selvaraj said that the restaurant was closed on March 18, 2009, as Veeramani did not come forward to pay `18 lakh. Veeramani also collected his deposit of `3.6 lakh, he said.

Though an advertisement was placed in newspapers calling for tenders on September 16, 2009, the matter could not be pursued as Veeramani obtained a stay from the Madras High Court.

After the stay was vacated on October 21, 2009, fresh tender notice was issued on December 6, 2009 and the contract was awarded to Pon Deivehan, who quoted `50 lakh as fee for running the food court, Selvaraj said.

Since Deivehan did not come forward to run the restaurant, tender notices were issued again on June 11, 2010.

Yet no one came forward to run the restaurant and the fourth tender notice was issued through the internet. Even then no proper contractor could be identified, Selvaraj said.

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