Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s is unbelievably generous to contractors. This is the extension of Pattiseema project, where he generously rewarded the contractor by about Rs 200 crore for completing the project as per the contract. This idea of forcing contractor to stick the contract with generous rewards is the brainchild of Naidu.
Opposition parties in the state took strong objection to rewarding the contractor for fulfilling the contract conditions agreed upon muturally. Normally, Contractor is to complete the work awarded to him on time. The time for the completion of the project is fixed after thoroughly studying the problems and hardships that possibly affect the execution of the contract. So, it is mandatory for the contractor to complete the work as per the schedule given to the contractor. If the contractor fails to execute the project the government can invoke the penal provisions of contract. But, Chandrababu Naidu’s innovative idea is to give more money over and above the contractual amount as reward and persuade him to complete the work on time. Why should the government ,which wields enormous power to force the Contractor honor the MoU signed, to kneel before him to ensure that the work executed in time ?. Not only opposition parties, even officials also find no rhyme or reason in this generosity towards contractors. It reeks a kind of scam, they say. The complaint is that the reward money would be pumped into politics again.
Now, having overcome the resistance from the opposition parties against the incentive announced for Pattiseem project and mainly from the principal opposition party YSR Congress, Chandrababu Naidu is now extending the policy of rewarding the contractors to all works in Andhra Pradesh.
In last week’s review meeting of R&B chief minister is said to have asked the officials to extend incentives to the contractors who completed the work in time. What is interesting is already the project cost is bloated taking into account the commissions the contractor has to pay to politicians and officials at some level. Now, the CM has announced the incentives. Given the rampant corruption and politicized administration in Andhra Pradesh, the official-politician-contractor nexus would conspire to give more time to the contractor than what the project requires in normal conditions, and see that every project is completed much before the dead line the pocket the incentive.
In the words of a senior official in the R&B department, who is opposed to the idea, in Andhra Pradesh now onwards every work would be completed in time and every contractor would honored as “Adarsha Contractor’ for completing the project in time. Finally the government will have to shell out hundreds of crores of rupees every year on rewards and incentives. And everybody knows the final destination of Naidu’s generous scheme.
