The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : A cartel was at work in Civil Supplies Corporation, says Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 12, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

A cartel was at work in Civil Supplies Corporation, says Minister

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Minister for Civil Supplies Adoor Prakash has said that a ``cartel thriving on goods purchase'' had been at work in the Civil Supplies Corporation for quite some time.

Speaking in the Assembly on Thursday, he said he had tried to break this cartel as soon as he took charge as the Minister. A judicial inquiry is on to bring out all the suspected irregularities of the last few years, he said.

His statement came when the House took up a request from T.K. Devakumar (CPI-M) to move an adjournment motion to discuss the `corruption' going on in the Civil Supplies Corporation. The Speaker denied permission to move the motion after the Minister's explanation.

The crux of Mr. Devakumar's deposition was that the corporation altered the bid conditions for the contract to supply materials to it after Mr. Prakash had taken over as the Minister. Formerly, the bidders had to submit samples of the commodities for which they had quoted rates. This practice was done away with to help the contractors "supply substandard goods at high rates to earn undue profits," Mr. Devakumar said.

He said that the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) had collected samples of various commodities bought thus by the corporation. These samples were found to be of poor standard, he said.

The corporation makes purchases totalling around Rs.50 crores a month for selling essential commodities to the public at reasonable prices through its network of outlets to hold the prices in check in the market.

Mr. Prakash said there was a racket in the business of quality testing. Certain individuals and the cartel they had built up were making use of the quality testing exercise to disqualify bidders quoting lower rates. The contracts invariably went to those who ran this cartel. He said he had posted a new managing director in the corporation soon after his assuming charge as the Minister. When the Speaker denied permission to move the adjournment motion, Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan said the Government should agree to have the affairs of the corporation investigated by a panel of the Assembly. The Chief Minister then said the judicial inquiry currently on would cover all aspects of the issue raised by Mr. Devakumar.

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