Friday Nov 5th 2010.
‘Aadhaar' vendors cry foul
M. L. Melly Maitreyi
HYDERABAD: Another round of allegations have been levelled about violation of norms in the tender process for selection of agencies for recording biometric evidence of citizens under the Unique Identification Number Project (Aadhaar) in the State.
Earlier, the vendors empanelled with UIDAI objected to the decision of the tender committee for inviting revised bids to arrive at a floor rate in the absence of a benchmark.
They, however, relented and submitted their bids afresh and the government could arrive at a floor rate and finalised the vendors in the order of seniority of the bidders (least to highest) who agreed to match with the floor rate. Now the grievance is about allotment of more stations (each station comprises 10,000 people) to some vendors than what they had opted originally in their bids.
But, allotting more stations to a vendor than what he had originally applied for has resulted in cutting down the stations for others though they had deposited the required amount. In one instance, while the original bid was for 100 stations, the vendor was given 400, an aggrieved vendor said.
Civil Supplies Commissioner Sanjay Jaju, Registrar for UIDAI in the State, however, said it was natural to offer more stations to those who quoted the least amount and willing to complete the work within the required timeframe.
“When the multi-disciplinary tender committee was executing the entire process in a transparent manner and documenting the process, how could anyone charge the committee with favouritism,” Mr.Jaju wondered.
Seven districts
The decision to invite revised bids for all the seven districts, Adilabad, Anantapur, Chittoor, East Godavari, Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Srikakulam, was taken because of wide variation in price quoted by bidders, from Rs.23 to above Rs.40. The process finally resulted in arriving at the floor price of Rs.30 per enrolment and below and it saved Rs.22 crore for the exchequer, he said.
Mr. Jaju said total number of stations remained the same at 3,200 for enrolling 3.18 crore residents in the above districts. Once the work orders were issued, the enrolment would have to be completed in 100 days.
M. L. Melly Maitreyi
HYDERABAD: Another round of allegations have been levelled about violation of norms in the tender process for selection of agencies for recording biometric evidence of citizens under the Unique Identification Number Project (Aadhaar) in the State.
Earlier, the vendors empanelled with UIDAI objected to the decision of the tender committee for inviting revised bids to arrive at a floor rate in the absence of a benchmark.
They, however, relented and submitted their bids afresh and the government could arrive at a floor rate and finalised the vendors in the order of seniority of the bidders (least to highest) who agreed to match with the floor rate. Now the grievance is about allotment of more stations (each station comprises 10,000 people) to some vendors than what they had opted originally in their bids.
But, allotting more stations to a vendor than what he had originally applied for has resulted in cutting down the stations for others though they had deposited the required amount. In one instance, while the original bid was for 100 stations, the vendor was given 400, an aggrieved vendor said.
Civil Supplies Commissioner Sanjay Jaju, Registrar for UIDAI in the State, however, said it was natural to offer more stations to those who quoted the least amount and willing to complete the work within the required timeframe.
“When the multi-disciplinary tender committee was executing the entire process in a transparent manner and documenting the process, how could anyone charge the committee with favouritism,” Mr.Jaju wondered.
Seven districts
The decision to invite revised bids for all the seven districts, Adilabad, Anantapur, Chittoor, East Godavari, Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Srikakulam, was taken because of wide variation in price quoted by bidders, from Rs.23 to above Rs.40. The process finally resulted in arriving at the floor price of Rs.30 per enrolment and below and it saved Rs.22 crore for the exchequer, he said.
Mr. Jaju said total number of stations remained the same at 3,200 for enrolling 3.18 crore residents in the above districts. Once the work orders were issued, the enrolment would have to be completed in 100 days.