After Contractor's Suicide, Karnataka To Check Tenders Above Rs 50 Crore

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday announced a high-level commission to check tenders that are above Rs 50 crore. "I've appointed a high-level commission. A retired high court judge will be heading it. The commission will comprise a financial and a technical expert," he said.

"Tenders above Rs 50 crore will be scrutinised by a committee headed by a judge. The tender will be initiated only after the process," Mr Bommai said.

The Chief Minister said the committee will start working by next week. It has been constituted so that tenders meet regulations specified under the KTPP Act. The tenders will be given only to those after the committee has vetted the tender pre-conditions.

Officials have been told not to issue work orders verbally and that all the guidelines to award a tender must be followed.

The decision to set up a committee comes in the wake of Santhosh Patil, a BJP worker and a contractor who died by suicide after holding KS Eshwarappa, former Minister of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister, responsible for his death in his suicide note.

Santhosh Patil alleged the former minister and his associates demanded 40 per cent commission for release of payments for a road work he had completed in his village in Belagavi district.

Mr Eshwarappa stepped down amid a political controversy, after the opposition Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party took to the streets demanding his resignation and arrest.

While there has been no clear cut decision taken by the government to order a probe into Santhosh Patil's allegations, the government has now set up this high-level panel to approve tenders in a fair manner.