MUMBAI: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday accused Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde of swindling at least Rs 65 crore by escalating prices of mobile phones to be purchased for her department.
The party also pointed out that the bills submitted by her for the government delegation that visited Davos this year too are heavily inflated and accused the government of bribing an officer to clear the new industries policy of the state to benefit specific developers.
Munde’s rural development department had proposed to buy smartphones for 85,452 child care centers spread across 30 districts for real-time monitoring.
The phones were purchased from a Bengaluru-based supplier. The Leader of opposition and NCP leader Dhanajay Munde pointed out that the phones were purchased at Rs 8,777 per unit even while their market cost is around Rs 6,900 per unit.
“A similar attempt was made to purchase over 1.20 lakh mobiles about an year ago. When we raised our voice suspecting the procedure, the issue was kept pending. But, now just before the elections Rs 106 crore is spent for the purchase of mobiles which would be available for Rs 30 to 40 crore,” Munde said while also expressing reservations about the quality of the devices.
Munde also reiterated his allegations against Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis saying that he has given clean cheats to all his ministers without conducting any inquiry into the allegations.
In another sensational allegation, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik accused the state government of bribing a top bureaucrat to get an industrial policy that promises windfall gains for the real estate lobby, cleared quickly.
He linked the issue with inflated bills of the Davos delegation.
A team of five officials from industries department under the leadership of Additional Chief Secretary (Industries) Satish Gavai had gone to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum. Bills worth Rs 7.63 crore were submitted for the tour.
“This is not the first time that a delegation has gone there. In 2015, the delegation under CM Fandnavis spent R89.53 lakhs, while in 2018, a much larger delegation, comprising the CM’s family and CMO officials, spent Rs 1.93 crore. Against these figures, Rs 7.63 crore for a five-member delegation is huge and it was paid to the officer for keeping the wishes of the boss,” Malik said.
The recently released industries policy of the state has provisions to divert factory land for real estate purpose for sick industries. “This was done at the behest of the developers’ lobby and under instructions from BJP president Amit Shah,” Malik said and added that it was done to mobilise funds for the elections and the officer who facilitated this, was given the Rs 7 crore.