Nainital HC stays Women & Child Development dept's tender for supply of take-home ration for Anganwadi centres

The Nainital High Court has put a stay on the tender process issued by the Department of Women and Child Development for the supply of take-home ration for Anganwadi centres in the state.

A single bench comprising of Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma has asked the state government to file a reply within three weeks. The next hearing will be held after three weeks.

Self-help groups of the Liberheri area of Haridwar district have filed a petition in the matter.

In the petition, according to the directions of the Supreme Court, demand has been made to give preference to self-help groups and rural groups in the tender issued by the government for the supply of nutritious food in Anganwadi centres.

The plea said such conditions have been deliberately placed by the state government in the tender process which the local institutions are not able to fulfil.

In the tender issued by the Department of Women and Child Development, the Government of Uttarakhand laid a condition that the turnover of the group which will participate in this tender process should be above Rs 3 crores for three years. In order to participate in the tender, earnest money of Rs 11.24 lakhs is to be included in the tender.

In the petition, the groups have said that before the ration was bought from them and there was no such condition.

It alleged that the government has given permission to private companies to participate in this tender process, which makes it clear that the government wants to keep out local institutions from this process.

( With inputs from ANI )