Government sector company BHEL in 2011 emerged as the lowest bidder for the power projects but in a surprise move, the state government scrapped the tenders in April this year, BJP National Secretary Kirit Somaiya said here.
"It was because the government wanted to benefit a private firm BGR Energy System. The price quoted by the private company were higher than BHEL by nearly 7 per cent," he claimed.
"However, the tender bids, which were invited by Rajasthan Rajya Vidhyut Utpadan Nigam in 2010, were cancelled without any reason in April this year," he said.
Somaiya said that after this development, Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Praful Patel wrote a letter to Rajasthan Chief Minister in May expressing surprise for sudden cancellation of the tender and requested him to award the contract to BHEL only.
"However, the government followed re-tendering process for setting up power plants in Chhabra and Suratgarh and divided it into two parts, under which BHEL may now get only half of the project and the other half of the project will go to the private firm," he said.
The party wanted to know the reason behind the cancellation of the tenders and why the Rajasthan government showed hurry in initiating re-tendering process despite the letter by the Union Minister, Somaiya said.
"I sense a huge scam worth Rs 1,000 crore in the entire exercise aimed to benefit the private firm. Rajasthan Energy Minister should resign for this gross irregularities and the matter should be investigated by an independent agency," he said.
State Energy minister Jitendra Singh could not be immediately reached for his comments.
