Mumbai, May 29 -- Activist Anjali Damania has accused food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal of rushing to issue work orders for a Rs.4,500-crore contract to transport foodgrains under Maharashtra's public distribution system (PDS), despite the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court temporarily restraining the state from issuing such orders. The bench recently directed the state government not to issue work orders in any district under the disputed tender process until the next hearing on June 22. The court is hearing a petition alleging cartelisation among existing transport contractors. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Damania alleged that senior NCP minister Bhujbal was trying to push ahead with the contracts despite the court order. "The cartel of contractors has been getting transport work for over two decades. The Aurangabad bench of the high court has issued an order, saying the state government should not issue a work order till June 22. Minister Chhagan Bhujbal demanded a bribe in return for the work order in this tender process. The state government needs to uproot this cartelisation and should intervene in this tender process," she said. The food and civil supplies department denied the allegations and clarified that no transporter has been awarded a work order so far. "All future decisions and actions related to the tender process will be taken strictly in compliance with the directions issued by the court," said Pramod Patil, deputy secretary of the department, in a statement. The controversy comes days after the Aurangabad bench granted interim relief in a petition filed by IMS Bhatia Transport Contractor, which has challenged the ongoing tender process to appoint transport contractors for a three-year period from 2026 to 2029. The dispute is part of a long-running legal battle over Maharashtra's policy of awarding large-scale foodgrain transport contracts under the PDS. According to the petition, the state issued a Government Resolution (GR) on April 21, 2026, introducing a new transport policy. Three days later, it issued another GR allegedly under political and financial pressure from existing contractors. The petitioner claimed that the revised conditions were designed so that only the existing contractor lobby could fulfil them. The petition further claimed that, contrary to the indication in the April 21 GR, tenders were floated only for 24 districts instead of all 35 districts and five zones in Mumbai and Thane. In its interim order on May 19, the bench observed that in matters relating to public contracts and government tenders, the process must be transparent, fair, non-discriminatory, and conducive to healthy competition. However, "the material placed on record indicates that for more than the last 12 years, the existing contractors have created a cartel. And for that reason, the same contractors have been awarded the tenders." The bench said the petitioner had made out a prima facie case for interim relief and directed the state not to issue work orders until the next hearing, though it allowed the tender process itself to continue....