The Punjab Cabinet on Sunday gave its nod to "The Punjab Food Grains Transportation Policy 2019-20" for transportation of food grains from mandis to its storage points at minimum rates through competitive tenders from various transporters.The decision, taken at the Council of Ministers' meeting chaired by the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh here this morning, is aimed at bringing further efficiency and transparency in procurement of food grains operations.Disclosing this here today, spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office here said that for the ensuing season, commencing from April 1, transportation of food grains beyond 8 Kilometers (KMs) would be allowed through a competitive online tender process. This would be done by district tender committees, of which the respective Deputy Commissioners would be the Chairpersons, with district FCI head, district heads of all state procurement agencies and district Controller of Food Supplies as members. The tenders under this policy would be invited for the financial year 2019-20 and would be valid for the period from 1-04-2019 to 31-03-2020.Further, to ascertain the competitive rates, detailed Schedule of Rate (SOR) guidelines have been incorporated in the policy, listing out rates per MT from more than 8 KMs up to 52 KMs.
For every additional KM beyond 52 KMs, a rate @ Rs. 3.10 per ton/kilometer would be applied. No premium beyond 120% of the rates mentioned in the SOR shall be permissible in any case. The powers to open the tenders, evaluation of technical bids and finalisation of the financial bid shall lie with these Committees, the spokesperson added.Giving details about the tendering process, the spokesperson said to ensure minimum expenditure on transportation of food grains, tenders would be invited cluster wise.It may be noted that the state procuring agencies of Punjab namely PUNGRAIN, MARKFED, Punjab State Warehousing Corporation (PSWC), PUNSUP, along with Food Corporation of India (FCI), procure food grains every year for the Central Pool or for Public Distribution System at the Minimum Support Price fixed by the Government of India.The detailed procedure regarding service of notice, cancellation of work, levy of penalty and blacklisting has been made part of the policy this year. District Tender Committees have been given the right to blacklist deficient contractor up to a period of two years, besides forfeiture of security and levying of penalty up to 2% of the contract value, depending on the merit of each case.