Last date for Jaya's memorial tender postponed: TN govt to HC

The Tamil Nadu government today told the Madras High Court that it had postponed the last date for the submission of tenders for the construction of a memorial for former chief minister, late J Jayalalithaa to February 20.
The submission was made by Advocate General Vijay Narayan when a petition by a civil contractor, challenging the tender notification, came up for hearing before Justice K Ravichandrabaabu.
The judge then directed that the matter be posted before the first bench, headed by Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, as a PIL related to the memorial was also pending before it.
In the present petition, contractor Natarajan has sought the quashing of the January 11 tender notification on the ground that it violated the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tender Act.

He has contended that since the tender value of the work is Rs 43.63 crore, it should have been published in the Indian Trade Journal, but the government has not done so.
Besides, as per the tender act, any tender with a value of more than Rs two crore should have a minimum period of 30 days for submission from the date of publication of the notification.

However, for the proposed memorial, the notification was published on January 23 with the last date for tender submission as February 2.
Hence, the petitioner has prayed for the quashing of the tender notification.

The other pending petition, filed by a lawyer, has sought the quashing of the tender notification, saying a PIL opposing the construction of the memorial off the Marina beach will become infructuous if the tender is awarded and the work commences.
The public interest litigation (PIL) petition, also filed by the lawyer, has sought to exhume the mortal remains of Jayalalithaa for burial away from the coastal area.