Wheat lifting: Admn cancels tenders of two contractors

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 25

For the first time in the past many years, the district administration has acted tough against transport contractors who had been assigned tenders to lift agricultural produce from markets and cancelled tenders of two such contractors after slow lifting was seen in markets assigned to them.

The District Food and Civil Supplies Controller has already cancelled the tenders of transport contractor who was earlier allotted tenders for grain markets in the Ajnala circle and issued the tender to the new contractor.

The department is also in the process of issuing new tenders to the contractors in the Chogawan circle, as the tender of the earlier contractor has already been cancelled.

The department has also issued a notice to the contractor earlier engaged for the Bhagatawala grain market after reports of slow lifting of the agriculture produce from the market were received.

District Food and Civil Supplies Controller Sartaj Singh said, “As per the norms, it is mandatory for the contractor to lift the produce from the grain market within 72 hours of procurement. As slow lifting was witnessed in these markets, the tenders of two contractors were cancelled.”

He said the tenders were cancelled after giving sufficient time to the earlier contractors to increase the pace of lifting wheat.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Kamaldeep Singh Sangha said clear instructions have been issued to the Food and Civil Supplies Department to ensure timely lifting of the produce so that there is no shortage of space in the markets. The review of the lifting process by the Deputy Commissioner along with representatives of procurement agencies and Food and Civil Supplies officials is being done on a daily basis, said Sartaj Singh.

The action by the district administration against transport contractors has come in the wake of the reports that many contractors who were allotted tenders for lifting did not have ample means to complete the work. The lifting tenders during previous years were allotted more though political connections than on the basis of merit. The officials of the administration stated that now they are allotting tenders through e-tendering purely on the basis of merit.