HC stays Maytas project; raps AP government

14 February 2009

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has given the state government a sharp reprimand while staying a Rs121 crore road project that was awarded to the tainted Maytas Infra even after the Satyam Computer Services scam was exposed.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Anil Ramesh Dave and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan also pulled up the government for awarding the project on a 'nomination' basis, which means there was no competitive bidding. The road laying work in Kadapa district of the state was sanctioned 20 December last year.

The stay comes after the state government, in response to a writ petition filed by two village headmen of Kadapa district, asked the court for two weeks' time to review its decision. The government counsel told the court that it had reconsidered the matter of giving the work to Maytas, but had decided to go ahead with the contractor.

The AP government's argument that nomination basis was essential to ensure speedy execution of the road project as also the Gandikota reservoir project that Maytas is executing in the area, was not accepted by the bench. Kadapa, incidentally, is the home district of state chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

"You had given the impression to us at the last hearing that you were in the process of cancelling the work," the bench observed and stayed the work till further orders. At the last hearing, the government counsel had said that the government would take a new look at the whole matter.

The government counsel's argument was that Maytas Infra Ltd had to be given the job on an express basis because construction of the Rs329 crore Gandikota dam was nearing completion; and that once the project was ready, parts of a state highway would be submerged, leaving several villages without any road link.