Shillong, Nov 2: The Meghalaya High Court turned down the plea to vacate a stay order in connection with tender process floated by the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL).

The tender was called by the MeECL on September 26 and the opening of bids was set for October 4 to select a bidder to implement the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojna – Saubhagya for electrification of households in the State.

After hearing the petition filed by SA Power Utilities Private Limited challenging the tender process carried out by the MeECL, the High Court’s single bench of Justice S.R. Sen said in an order that an Additional Advocate General had pressed to vacate the stay order as the matter is urgent.

“But I am not inclined to vacate the stay today (on Friday) as the entire matter will become infructuous,” Justice Sen said.

An interim order shall remain in force till the next date of hearing.

Considering the submission made by the Additional Advocate General, list the matter after a week for rejoinder affidavit as well as hearing.

The court had earlier stayed the entire tendering process and directed the MeECL and the State Government to file counter affidavits while the MeECL was directed not to proceed with the tender.

Allegations were raised that financial requirements of the tender have been devised to exclude local and small-scale contractors and favour certain contractors.

Another allegation was that, the bid document was favouring two parties from outside the State, Satnam Global Infraprojects Limited, Delhi and Patel Engineering, Delhi. It was also alleged that only eight days were given for casting of the tender. The eight-day deadline includes weekends and Gandhi Jayanti, which means only three to four working days were allotted for bidders to take part in the tendering process and the argument is that how such big tenders can be done at such short notice.

In the tender qualification criteria, the stakes were too high, and none of the local contractors from Meghalaya qualified.

Further it was questioned as to why the scope of work of existing contractors of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and others were not extended.

The Union Ministry of Power had in the first part sanctioned Rs 265 crore in August this year, and in the second part, it was sanctioned Rs 207 crore in September under Saubhagya for Meghalaya.

The Saubhagya scheme is to provide electricity to all households by December 31 this year.

The project is aimed at cent per cent household electrification through construction of an 11 KV line with ACSR weasel conductor, installation of distribution transformers and others.

According to statistics, there are 1,40,315 households yet to be electrified in Meghalaya and the Rural Electrification Corporation Limited is the nodal agency for implementating the scheme.