2 IAS officers suspended, 2 transferred over 6-year delay in smartphone procurement for Anganwadi workers
Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, a 2001-batch IAS officer, who was without a posting for almost 11 months, has finally been given a posting today
The Punjab Government tonight placed two IAS officers under suspension, transferred an Additional Chief Secretary and a Joint Secretary, in the case of delay in procuring smartphones for Anganwadi workers. Kamal Kishore Yadav, who was Administrative Secretary in Industries, Investment Promotion and Promotion of Information Technology, and Jaspreet Singh, Managing Director, Punjab Infotech, have been placed under suspension with immediate effect. The two officers, placed under suspension, will be attached to the state headquarters in Chandigarh and given only subsistence allowance during their period of suspension from service.
In the same case, wherein there was a six-year delay in buying 28,515 smartphones to track 12 lakh beneficiaries under Poshan Abhiyan, the Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Social Security, Vikas Pratap, and Joint Secretary Anand Sagar Sharma, have been given marching orders. No posting has been given to Vikas Pratap, though Anand Sagar has been posted as Additional Deputy Commissioner Gurdaspur.
Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, a 2001-batch IAS officer, who was without a posting for almost 11 months, has finally been given a posting today. He will now head the Industries, Investment Promotion, and Social Security departments. The charge of MD Punjab Infotech has been given to Harshuinder Singh Brar.
Official sources say that the two officers in Punjab Infotech, placed under suspension, were responsible for procuring the smartphones. The vendor selected by the government for providing the smartphones had knocked at the doors of the court and an adverse order for the government was reportedly given by the court.
“There was a six-year delay in procuring the smartphones, which not only led to better technology in phones being available in this time duration, but the cost of smartphones also increased from Rs 34 crore to Rs 60 crore,” said an official familiar with the case.
Under Mission Saksham Anganwadi of the Central Government, around Rs 27 crore was given to the state by the Centre in 2018. This was the 60 per cent share that the Centre gives for running the scheme, and the state’s Department of Social Security had to chip in with its 40 per cent share. The government had initially sought bids to buy the 4G smartphones, but as time passed, the government wanted to buy the 5G smartphones and changed the condition in the bids. But the issue continued to be caught in bureaucratic rigmarole and smartphones have not yet been purchased.
The Anganwadi workers were being given an annual allowance to use their own smartphones to track beneficiaries, till they got the smartphones from the government.
