Andhra Pradesh   

Regulatory body to check corruption in purchases

HYDERABAD: With a view to check corruption in the purchase of material and equipment for government projects, the Cabinet on Wednesday decided to set up a procurement regulatory authority to serve as a single-window facility to monitor all procurements made by different departments.

Accordingly, it approved a draft of the AP Public Procurement Bill to give effect to its decision.

As matters relating to contracts and contractors, through whom the departments like Irrigation, Roads & Buildings, Panchayat Raj, Health, etc make purchases, fall in the concurrent list, the bill will be referred to the President before being introduced in the Assembly.

Information Minister A. Ramanarayan Reddy told reporters later that a collegium comprising the Chief Secretary, a retired judge each from the Supreme and High Courts, and experts in HRD would identify the chairman and two members for appointment to the authority. Any purchase above a certain threshold value would have to be approved by it. He said Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy would examine and take a decision on relaxing the upper age limit by five years for candidates applying for recruitment through the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission. This follows representations by candidates that they had lost opportunity during the nine-year period prior to 2004.The Minister said the proposal to recruit 50,000 teachers through the DSC-2008 was cleared and a notification for the test under which 17,971 school assistants, 28,289 special grade teachers, 2,719 physical education teachers and 6,965 language pundits would be taken in, would be issued soon.A decision was also taken to set up a separate wing in the Minorities Welfare Department exclusively for Christians headed by a joint director and manned by 10 employees.

Similarly, 50 post-matric hostels would be set up for STs and a residential school for the children of fishermen at Naraspur in Medak district.

The Minister said a plan to establish family courts at Guntur, Karimnagar, Visakhapatnam (where one is existing), Eluru, Anantapur, LB. Nagar (Hyderabad), Khammam, Vizianagram and Kadapa each headed by a district judge was cleared. Approval was given to establish 10 additional senior civil judge courts and 25 junior civil judge courts in the State.

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