THANE: Municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal on Wednesday announced a revamp of the tendering process for executing civic projects to ensure more transparency and do away with any possible cartelisation among contractors.The sudden revamp at this stage has led to several questions including wether there was lack of faith in the present mechanism and also if it is an indirect confirmation by the commissioner towards alleged lapses in the system as all tendering processes are known to undergo a stringent scrutiny by departments at several stages.The decision was taken after a marathon meeting between officials from various department, municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal on Wednesday redefined the parameters while okaying applications and ensuring penalty for defaulting contractors.Among the slew of changes recommended are weeding out contractors who could be responsible or part of a cartel. The Commissioner said action should be taken on contractors who are found to submit inadequate documents while responding to tenders for any project.Jaiswal has also warned of action for those contractors who deliberately offer excessively high or low rates by either putting them in a blacklist or forfeit their deposit money in certain cases.The commissioners also asked the officials to revise the existing norms against contractors who have undertaken works under Rs 5 crore but were asked to ensure ready mix concrete plants on their sites. As per the revision only those contractors whose work is valued over Rs 5 crore and tenure is beyond 18 months will have to ensure these facilities.The development comes at a time when the existing practice which was in force till now was considered foolproof and has now raised questioned like how any lapses went unnoticed till now especially when there was a dedicated team scrutinising all projects coming up for execution.Activists have taken this opportunity and have sought a complete audit of all major projects executed till now to ensure that there was no financial loss or lapses in the recent past. "How come the lapse was realised at this stage when a majority of projects were on the anvil of being flagged off ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. If there is a possibility of cartelisation then all projects that were executed till now must face an audit," said a corporator requesting anonymity.Civic officials however dismissed the claims and said the policy was altered fearing a cartelisation among contractors ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

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