In yet another step towards establishing a corruption-free administration in Andhra Pradesh, the YSR Congress party government headed by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday got a bill passed in the assembly seeking to set up a mechanism for judicial preview of all big ticket tenders.
The bill -- Andhra Pradesh Infrastructure (Transparency through Judicial Preview) Bill 2019 – was passed by the assembly by voice vote. It will enable all tenders for projects that are worth above Rs 100 crore come under judicial scrutiny.
Jagan said that this was a beginning for the transparency in governance and it would erase the image of corruption the state had acquired by the misdeeds of the previous government.
“The Bill will usher in a change and this spark will ignite the nation as such the Bill will be emulated by the entire nation,” he said.
According to the bill, any work that is more than Rs 100 crore, even if it is split into fractions, will first be sent for a preview which will be done by a judge, referred to by the High Court.
The judge would place the tender or work on public domain for one week and will seek the opinion from the people.
The judge will then scrutinize the tender papers and then give his final decision in eight days, during which time he will be provided with the required technical assistance and logistics which he asks for, the Chief Minister said.
The entire process takes a fortnight and this is the transparency in governance which we have promised to the people, he said.
The Bill has identified 25 sectors including Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) that could be considered by the Judicial Preview.
The aim of the Bill is to create equal opportunity, cost and quality consciousness while developing infrastructure projects.
