Madras HC notice in PIL against TN Minister, SP Velumani for alleged corruption in award of Corporation Contracts

The Madras High Court has issued notice in a PIL calling for the registration of an FIR against SP Velumani, the state Minister for Municipal Administration, Rural Development and implementation of special government programmes..The petition filed by NGO Arappor Iyakkam alleges that Velumani has abused his powers to promote cartelization and bid-rigging in the award of public corporation contracts, in order to favour his close aides and benamis..Following arguments made on Friday by Senior Counsel V Suresh for the petitioner, the Bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and P Rajamanickam issued notice and posted the matter for January 23. Further, the Court also suo motu impleaded the Chennai and Coimbatore Corporations..The petition before the Court states that Velumani has been actively involved in manipulating the award of several corporation contracts to favour a few individuals close to him and benami companies. It has been submitted,.“...in many tenders, only 2 bidders have participated in the process. In most cases, the bidders who participate represent either the same person in different names or parties related to each other or closely related….the tender process is `fixed’ and compromised to ensure that only the entities who submit their bid, win the tender. As is detailed in this writ and in our complaint, these entities/individuals all have some relationship/link with the Minister….… the entire tender process is totally rigged and manipulated in such a way that it is just one party which is participating in the tender though on paper there appears to be several bidders. This is as good as awarding the contract without any tender as the 2 bidders are one and the same… .A study of these tenders indicate collusion amongst small number of bidders who between and amongst themselves apportioned the tenders in such a way that for each tender there were only 2 bidders drawn from amongst themselves and collectively each of them managed to get a substantial number of Tenders. In this manner, while the contractors benefitted, the public cause or exchequer was affected resulting in loss of revenue.”.Featuring on the list of crony companies alleged to be involved in the racket (as inferred from RTI requests) are KCP Engineers Pvt Ltd, Vardhan infrastructure, Constronics India, P Senthil and Co. and SP Builders. The petition also goes on to detail various methods in which the tender process is allegedly manipulated so as to benefit these companies alone. In the case of certain Chennai corporation tenders, the tender conditions are submitted to have been brazenly changed to fit the profile of these companies..Such activities in turn fall afoul of the Tamil Nadu Tender Transparency Act, 1988 and the Competition Act, 2002, the petition contends. For his alleged role in promoting the same, it is contended that Velumani has also violated the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988..In September 2018, Arappor Iyakkam also submitted a complaint to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), the petition goes on to state. However, the Court was thereafter approached since no positive response was forthcoming from the DVAC. The petitioner has prayed that the Court direct the DVAC to register a criminal complaint against Minister Velumani for his alleged abuse of power. The petition also calls for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the matter..A similar petition filed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party is also pending before the High Court..In October last year, the Court had ordered a ordered a CBI probe into the alleged corruption on the part of Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy in the award of highway contracts. However, this order was later stayed by the Supreme Court on appeal.