By Mayukh Goswami (PNI)
Mangaldai :The issue of settlement of markets and commercial parking places under Mangaldai Municipal Board which has already invited media limelight in recent time , once again has drawn media attraction . This time the matter is even serious involving the High Court . The Mangaldai Police already arrested three persons on charges of misguiding the court with some forged and tempered documents while filing a complaint before the Guwahati High Court challenging the
According to the information collected from official source in the local civic body on Monday , one of the accused persons Loknath Das vide a petition in Guwahati High court had challenged the tender process of the Mangaldai Municipality Board (MMB) to settle a commercial big vehicle parking place namely Kharupetia-Khoirbari-Mazjikuchi . The municipal authority inviting tender from genuine lessees reportedly decided to settle the said big vehicle parking in the name of Kamal Das, the highest bidder with a bidding rate of just over Rs. 8 lakhs for the period from October, 2018 to March 2019. But as the process was about to complete the selected bidder Kamal Das in black and white expressed his inability to run the parking lot at his quoted bid amount. The municipal authority then had to change their decision as per the laid down procedure to make the settlement in the name of Sahadev Das, the next highest bidder fulfilling the necessary official norms with the bid amount of Rs. 3.50 lakhs. In the mean time as the settlement process was about to be completed , Loknath Das challenged the tender process in the high court and managed to earn court injunction order . However the alleged malafide intention of the petitioner effecting the govt revenue earning procedure came to light when the municipal authority during verification of the documents in the court on the hearing date on Thursday found some forged and tempered official documents being submitted along with the petition to mislead the court . This led the municipal authority to file police complaint on the next day requesting legal action against the accused person, the source added . It may well be mentioned that the tender process for settlement of commercial parking places and markets was revived recently after a gap of almost fifteen years since 2003 following a direction of the High Court rejecting the challenge petition filed by six lessees including the arrested Talebuddin Ahmed . The new tender process has brought a ray of hope for an enhanced revenue collection of several lakhs of rupees of the Board , which had allegedly been denied through an illegal practice of extension of contract period favouring a section of dishonest lessees reportedly without the requisite prior approval of the Government .