Telangana’s New Tender Policy: Qualify First, Pay Later

Telangana’s Congress government promised clean governance. It has now been handed a useful opportunity to demonstrate it: a written complaint alleging that tenders for Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited’s Radial Road-2 project were manipulated, contractors were threatened away, and the Chief Minister’s Office demanded a 15% commission for awarding projects and releasing pending bills. The allegation, made by RVM Constructions to the Builders Association of India and reported by The News Minute, is not a court finding. It is, however, in writing. That makes it rather more substantial than the usual political noise Revanth Reddy dismisses between inaugurations.

The complaint also alleges nearly ₹20,000 crore in certified contractor payments are pending, some for more than three years. It says Sushee Infra’s bids were lower by roughly ₹600 crore across three packages, yet the company was disqualified after political pressure. These are serious allegations, not facts this column can certify from the letter alone. They are also precisely the sort of allegations a government confident in its tender process should welcome investigating, publishing and demolishing with documents.

Instead, the familiar Congress operating system is available: deny, delay, blame the previous government and proceed as though transparency is a word that becomes true when repeated by a minister. Revanth Reddy’s government wants credit for development before it has delivered the road, while the paperwork appears to be travelling faster than the asphalt. Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, whose department and public record on project delivery deserve scrutiny wherever relevant, cannot reduce a flagship infrastructure dispute to a communications problem. Nor can the Chief Minister treat a complaint involving alleged political pressure, a claimed ₹600-crore bid gap and enormous pending dues as an opposition slogan merely because answering it would require records rather than volume.

The government should publish the tender evaluation, explain the disqualification, disclose the payment position and order an independent inquiry into the commission allegation. If the claims are false, the documents will expose them. If they are not, Telangana has a much larger problem than one disputed road. A state that needs roads cannot afford political toll gates on the way to building them. Revanth Reddy’s government has not yet proved corruption here; it has proved something less dramatic and nearly as damaging: that transparency, under Congress, still arrives as a slogan before it arrives as a file.