HC puts on hold TN govt's Rs 200-crore egg procurement tender

The Madras High Court Wednesday kept in abeyance till September 20 the Tamil Nadu government's Rs 200-crore egg procurement tender after some suppliers opposed the zone-level buying policy of the state, saying it was discriminatory.

After hearing their petitions, Justice R Mahadevan passed an interim order, putting on hold the egg procurement tender for the supply of approximately 50 lakh eggs per day.

The judge directed the government to file its counter by September 7 and posted the matter for further hearing on September 14.

The petitioners submitted that the government's tender stipulations allowed only poultry farmers to participate in the tender and was "arbitrary and discriminatory".

The government is purchasing the eggs for its Nutritious Meal Programme and Integrated Child Development Services scheme.

According to the petitioners, the state government has been procuring eggs through state-wide tenders since 2012.

To their shock, the petitioners said, a government order was issued on August 20 cancelling a tender floated on July 24 for the procurement of about 50 lakh eggs per day for one year.

By rescinding it, the government introduced zone-level procurement by dividing the state into six zones for six months. It amounted to creating artificial barriers and precluding suppliers, the petitioners claimed.

When the pleas came up for hearing before Justice Mahadevan Tuesday, Advocate General Vijay Narayan submitted that the government as a policy decided to float zone- wise tender.

"The government made the decision as a policy to avoid middlemen and encourage actual poultry farmers (to sell eggs to the government directly). Trying to avoid middlemen cannot be said to be a bad policy," he said.

Also, direct procurement from the producer would reduce the cost as transportation of eggs, he had submitted.

As a separate tender is floated for each zone, the value of such tender is below the Rs 50 crore mark, which mandates compulsory all-India tender as per the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, Narayan had said.