Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s plan to shift to a new office has landed him in the middle of a raging political controversy, with the Opposition alleging irregularities in the tender process.
Vijay intends to shift the Chief Minister’s Office from Fort St. George to Namakkal Kavingar Maaligai in Chennai to provide more workspace for his staff.
Construction is already underway, according to reports.
Levelling the first-ever corruption allegation against the three-month-old government, the Bharatiya Janata Party alleged that the tender had been released a month after construction commenced. “In stark contrast to all the tall claims made by the new TVK government about bringing in transparency to the government tender process, a news article by a leading daily today has openly alleged many discrepancies in the tender process in connection with the new chief minister’s office for Vijay. “Shifting his office is his personal choice. We can’t interfere in it. Even we are happy in a way with the chief minister shifting his office, as that building was constructed by Kalaignar Karunanidhi. We seek clarification from the government. You speak about purity in tenders. Tamil Nadu minister Aadhav Arjuna has refuted the allegations.
Recently, a Rs 5.5-crore tender was floated by the government for the shifting. The article states that the tender work is worth about Rs 5.5 crores, and that there have been multiple irregularities in the tender process. It has been only 100 days since the TVK government came to power, and already the government is under the scanner,” said BJP leader CR Kesavan.
But an Indian newspaper report says there are irregularities in the tender, which was not floated online either. But news reports say the tender has been invited after works began for the office,” he said.
