NEPOTISM UNACCEPTABLE

The accusations made by the transport community against Zonal Police Headquarters, Jammu is something which should be probed on priority as allegations leveled are of serious nature and under the realm of LG’s Administration such kind of things are unacceptable. It is pertinent to mention that the transport community in Jammu has alleged that hiring of vehicles through tenders by Zonal Police Headquarters, Jammu has turned out to be a classical example of favouritism/bias towards the selected contractors for the last three years. The transporters have also urged LG’s office to intervene in the matter and break the nexus. If the allegations are true then the LG should not only break the nexus but also give directions to take action per law against those who are giving a bad name to administration because the incumbent government has special characteristics of corruption-free governance and such things if true are not tolerable at all. It has been pointed out that the procedure adopted for selecting the ‘Single’ contractor for supplying of vehicles of different categories is itself a mockery of the system of tender. The vehicles hired are mainly utilised in connection with Lok Sabha/Assembly/ Local Body elections. In 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 special conditions were imposed in the tenders, such as minimum annual turnover of the bidder has been raised from Rs 20 lakh in 2019-20 to Rs 35 lakh in 2020-21 and then next year to Rs 1.5 crore. This year also same Rs 1.5 crore has been fixed just to manipulate and provide benefit to the blue-eyed. Besides many other objectionable clauses, the transporters have alleged that a new condition of three years’ mandatory experience of working with Police Department has been inserted which itself is a mockery of the system and to debar other local transporters to participate in the tender process. This clearly shows a nexus of some officers with a few transporters which needed to be exposed and broken. The conditions as alleged by the transporters need to be probed because a fair deal seems to be missing the whole gamut and under the Modi Government such kind injustice is not at all justified and therefore government should take cognizance of the allegations and act according to law to find the conspiracy if any and also take legal action against those who have marred the process of tendering by doing nepotism.

Editorial editorial article 1