Odisha Police guns down SSIs

BHUBANESWAR: The SSI units of the State which, for decades, supplied footwear and other leather materials to Odisha Police, are looking down the barrel even as the State Government celebrates Entrepreneurs Week.While the Government claims it is promoting MSMEs, the leather companies of the State on Tuesday alleged that police are preferring big brand non-Odisha companies over them.At least seven State-based leather companies are under Export Promotion and Marketing (EPM) rate contract for supply of different kinds of shoes to the State Police, a job which they have been doing since 1970s. The decision of  the State Police to go in for an open tender last year has, however, changed their world.“We have been supplying to the police organisation all their requirements based on EPM contract and there has never been any complaint. In 2003, they had incorporated certain changes in specifications which were complied with by the suppliers,” Subrat Tripathy of Venus Shoes and Leathers told mediapersons here on Tuesday.For the first time, in 2007, Odisha Police decided to go in for open tender which was challenged by the suppliers in the Orissa High Court. Tripathy said the HC ruled against open tender. The State Police repeated the pattern last year and went in for open tender once again. This time, Tripathy said, police organisation changed the specifications by including PU sole as a feature. A technical committee of the State Police vetted the changed specifications and decided that branded companies be allowed to take part in the tender.“Two associations, Orissa Police/OSAP Havildar, Constable and Sepoys Confederation and Orissa Police Association, submitted representations saying they wanted more comfort in footwear and by branded companies which changed the whole equation,” said Abhijeet Patnaik, another supplier.This, he said, also changed the financial implications of the supply from about ` 2 crore to ` 7 crore although Odisha Police is bound by the EPM rate contract. The suppliers knocked the doors of the Orissa High Court again which allowed a window for open tender and the matter was then taken to Supreme Court through a special leave petition, Patnaik said.“If branded companies are allowed to supply, it will spell death for the SSIs and the employees will have nowhere to go,” the suppliers rued.