Anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal, currently a seven-member body headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice A M Khanwilkar, has floated a tender for the procurement of seven BMW cars, raising eyebrows.
“The Lokpal of India invites open tenders from reputed agencies for supply of seven BMW 3 series 330Li cars to the Lokpal of India,” stated the tender issued on October 16. The tender was floated for the ‘M Sport’ model with ‘long wheelbase’, and in white colour.
The last date to submit the bids is November 6 and bidders will have to deposit earnest money of Rs 10 lakh. The bids will be opened the next day.
The cars need to be delivered in “preferably two weeks but not later than 30 days from the date of issuing of the supply order”, it stated, adding that “no extension of time will be given”.
The Lokpal has seven members against a sanctioned strength of eight. Other than chairperson Justice Khanwilkar, its six members are former Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court Justice Sanjay Yadav; former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court Ritu Raj Awasthi; former judge of Karnataka High Court Justice L Narayana Swamy; former Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra; former Chief Secretary of Gujarat Pankaj Kumar; and former Secretary of Women and Child Development Ministry Ajay Tikrey.
Justice Khanwilkar and the other members were not available for comment Tuesday on the tender for the BMW cars.
Incidentally, the Chief Justice of India is assigned a Mercedes while other Supreme Court judges are assigned BMW 3 series cars, the same for which the Lokpal has issued a tender.
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Amitabh Kant, former NITI Aayog CEO and India’s G20 Sherpa, in a post on X, criticised the Lokpal’s tender and said Indian-made vehicles must be preferred over BMWs.
“They need to cancel this tender and go for @makeinindia Electric Vehicles – either Mahindra’s XEV 9E, BE 6 or Tata’s Harrier EV. They are top class vehicles,” he said.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan also took to X to criticise the tender, saying members were “now buying 70L BMW cars for themselves”.
