Ad the multi-crore Bengaluru Smart City Project controvery under the Nirbhaya Fund has taken the state by storm, Karnataka IPS officers Hemant Nimbalkar and Home Secretary D Roopa continue to engage in war of words unveiling various facets.
In the lastest development of the Nirbhaya fund project controversy Karnataka Home Secretary D Roopa, IPS has accused IPS officers Hemant Nimbalkar of floating a "biased and unfair tender favouring an individual vendor".
Roopa has also alleged that public sector unit BEL was wrongly disqualified in the tender and the PSU had complained to the Prime Minister's Office, leading to the scrapping of the tender.
In a response to these allegations, during a press conference, Nimbalkar, who is the chairman of both the Tender Inviting Committee and the Tender Scrutiny Committee for the project, said the tender was cancelled as the government issued a new order banning procurement of Chinese origin materials for any projects.
He further said, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) was not disqualified in the scrapped tender for the Rs 620-crore Bengaluru Safe City Project, IPS officer and chairman of the tender inviting authority Hemant Nimbalkar said on Sunday.
'Not prepared to speak about personal statements made, matter stands in court': Nimbalkar
During a press conference on Sunday, December 27, Hemant Nimbalkar said that the tender process is not biased, "There is no bidder for the project at the moment since the final date for submission of bids is January 8.
"After the bid submission, technical bids will be opened and quality and cost will be considered. Then pre-qualification and technical qualification will be checked and they will be asked to give a proof of concept."
"After this, it was decided by the tender committee that Chinese-made products should not be considered and decided to cancel the second tender. I am not prepared to speak about personal statements or statements made in social media as the matter stands in court," he further added.
On first two tender processes, Nimbalkar said, "BEL did not compete in Call 1 as a bidder. Three bidders who came forward did not qualify beyond the pre-qualification process and were not considered for the technical qualification process. So there is no question of bias coming here. Then in Call 2, three companies qualified in June - Larsen & Tourbo, Matrix and BEL. BEL's bid was accepted."
Answer to questions of irregularities in the tender process not address: D Roopa
As per reports, Roopa D responded to the Hemant Nimbalkar's press conference and said that he did not answer questions of irregularities in the tender process.
Roopa as quoted by The News Minute said, "He has called the tender with many irregularities. He has been misleading and giving misinformation to higher ups in the government upto the highest level. He held a press conference but did not answer the questions of irregularities and the complaints that led to the cancellation of tender two times."
Complaints from the past against the Nirbhaya fund surface
The complaints pertaining to "corruption" in the Bengaluru Safe City Project tender under the Nirbhaya fund for selection of the service provider for design, implementation and maintenance, surfaced. Read the letters below.
One of the letter written to Deputy Secretary of Govt read, "Pertaining to the mentioned tender, we would like to bring in your notice about the corruption of 700 crores in Karnataka Police Department. The mentioned tender has a valuation of close to 700 crores wherein • OEM's - Cisco Systems for Network Switches, Hikvision for Cameras • Master System Integrator (Bidder)- Matrix Security and Surveillance Pvt. Ltd is pre-decided."
"The technical specifications of switches and cameras are defined in a way to favour the defined OEM's. Now, the tender is re-published the second time and again the tender technical specifications after corrigendum have been drastically changed. It raises serious concerns on the intent of the technical and tendering committee."
Another complaint letter read, "We would like to bring in your notice Master System Integrator (Bidder)- Matrix Security and Surveillance Private Ltd has quoted Chinese Company origin cameras in regard of National Security the Chinese cameras must be restricted as they breach the national security via inbuilt Chinese worms in software with which they may gain control over security network and send information to china
Being a Chinese OEM mere is a high risk of cyber threats from China and same has been ac-messed or other countries as we Since cameras shall be deployed across the city there is / high risk of a security breach and may lead to serious security concerns on Bengaluru Safety. We highly condemn the usage of Chinese OEM cameras on the ground of Security concerns
We request you to intervene and no needful to restrict Chinese OEMs
Nirbhaya fund controversy: Roopa D vs Nimbalkar
As the controversy surrounding multi-crore Bengaluru Smart City Project under the Nirbhaya Fund unravels, Karnataka IPS officers Hemant Nimbalkar and Home Secretary D Roopa lock horns.
The controversy came to light after a news report, which appeared on Friday, mentioned that an unnamed IPS officer had "impersonated" as the Home Secretary to get confidential information and interfered with the tendering process of the Bengaluru Safe City Project.
The content of the report was based on the complaint written by IPS officer Hemant Nimbalkar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Administration) to the Karnataka Chief Secretary on December 7.
In her explanation to the Chief Secretary, D Roopa, IPS stated that she had called the company to know the details about the project as she had found serious irregularities in tender document of the Bengaluru Safe City Project under the Nirbhaya scheme.
D Roopa has also written to the Karnataka Chief Secretary, seeking a probe against Nimbalkar over the tender document which has been dropped. She has now clarified that the complaint against her was false and motivated.
(Disclaimer: IBTimes has approached Hemanth Nimbalkar, IPS for a quote. As soon as we receive his response, this story will be duly updated)
