Karnataka legislators are pushing for developmental works in such a manner that each one costs less than Rs 5 lakh in order to bypass the tender process, a move that raises serious doubts on transparency and fears about public money being misused.
According to rules, any project below Rs 5 lakh need not be tendered as per the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act. The tender process involves inviting public bids by contractors to execute works and the lowest bid is chosen.
Legislators, across parties, list out small projects in their constituencies that do not exceed Rs 5 lakh each. Most of these are road works in rural areas coming under the Rural Development & Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department.
