Miffed by agriculture commissioner V. Usha Rani ignoring his directive to put the tenders for procurement of bio-pesticides on hold, agriculture minister Kanna Lakshminarayana has lodged a protest with Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and chief secretary Pankaj Dwivedi.
In response to a letter sent by TD Deputy Floor leader in the Assembly E. Dayakar Rao, the agriculture minister wrote a letter on May 3 to stay the tender process. Objecting to the manner in which the tenders were being rushed, Mr Dayakar Rao had demanded scrapping of the process. Ms Usha Rani, however, proceeded with convening the tender committee meeting on May 5 and finalised the agencies for supply of material that may cost more than Rs 25 crore.
The commissioner issued directions to the agriculture officers in districts to immediately place orders and procure material from the selected agencies after the minister dashed off two office notes to her to withhold the process. "The orders for placement of indent and purchase of stocks were issued backdated to circumvent the directives from the ministry," Mr Lakshminarayana is said to have complained to the top brass.
According to the minister, the commissioner flouted several norms as advertisement for tenders was published only in a vernacular daily, without any mention of quantity to be supplied except the varieties of bio-pesticides and only 10 days time was given to submit the tenders.
"The minimum time of 45 to 60 days should have been allowed as per Central Vigilance Commission guidelines," the minister said in a note marked as "urgent" to both the commissioner and principal secretary (agriculture) V. Nagi Reddy. He sought a detailed report on how the tenders were finalised despite passing of stay order and the officer failing to follow the minimum prescribed guidelines. “There is no rush to process tenders as the material to be procured will be put to use only after August,” the minister pointed out.