Landowners from Eastern-West Khasi Hills district have appealed to the state government to split the tenders under the project “Climate Adaptive Community Based Water Harvesting Structure” based on one work for one site.
According to the landowners, consideration to split and call the tenders separately will enable them to participate “This will help and enable the landowners, local contractors and the people of the area to get the benefits from the government programme, especially during this time of economic crisis,” the landowners said at a press conference.
The landowners also said they had met with Soil and Water Conservation Minister, Marcuise N Marak with an appeal to include a provision in the agreement signed with the department to enable the landowners to participate in the tender since they were all Class-I contractors having good experience and capacity to handle such works.
One of the landowners, A. Mawlong said that the advertisement for tenders dated November 29, 2023 for East Khasi Hills district for the similar project is in cluster. He said combining multiple locations amounts to Rs 5 crore and above.
He said that such big tenders floated would affect small local contractors in rural areas and warned that if the government failed to listen to their appeal then landowners would not cooperate with the big contractors.
They have also urged landowners who have given land for such projects in the Khasi-Jaiñtia region who are confused about the new criterion, to reach out to them so that they can fight for the same cause unitedly.
