HYDERABAD: In a relief to the Telangana government, a division bench of the High Court on Wednesday permitted it to go ahead with processing the tenders submitted for the Palamur-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS).
The bench, however, told the government not to enter into final agreement with the successful bidder pursuant to the tender notification since it has to be ascertained whether all the recommendations of experts are incorporated for implementation of the scheme.
The bench, comprising acting chief justice Dilip B Bhosale and justice P Naveen Rao, while dealing with a petition filed by former minister and BJP leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy, observed that it would not remain a mute spectator if crores of rupees worth public money was put in the hands of contractors who had no required expertise in executing the project.
Nagam, in his petition, sought a CBI probe into the process of framing of tender notification issued by the government for PRLIS. The recommendations made by experts from the Engineering Staff College of India (ESCI) were ignored by the authorities, he pointed out.
The bench asked advocate-general K Ramkrishna Reddy to place the technical parameters under which the contractors were short-listed for the project. After looking into the technical parameters the court would decide whether to intervene in the matter or not, the bench said. After perusing the material on record, the bench opined that the government cannot grant work contract to some one who may not come up to the standards fixed by ESCI.
While adjourning the case to March 28, the bench directed the AG to place all technical details by next date of hearing.