Punjab: Long delay in buying cellphones under Poshan Abhiyaan

The Punjab Government has been going back and forth for the purchase of 28,515 smartphones for aganwadi workers to track the beneficiaries under the Centre-funded Poshan Abhiyaan. The suspension of two Punjab IAS officers and transfer of another two in the case allegedly related to the delay in procuring smartphones has brought into focus political and official hurdles.

Punjab and West Bengal are the only two states that have failed to procure the devices required to track nearly 12 lakh beneficiaries under the Poshan 2.0, a scheme to provide supplementary nutrition to children, pregnant women, lactating mothers and adolescent girls. Most states have already availed the second replacement of the devices. The rule allows replacing smartphones every four years.

8 yrs since funds released

But it has been eight years since the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development released nearly Rs 27 crore, with the Centre-state contribution fixed at 60:40 ratio. The grant was given to the state’s Department of Social Security and Development of Women and Children.

At the fag end of the Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government in 2021, the state’s Social Security and Women and Child Development Department entrusted Punjab Infotech with procuring the required smartphones.

Cost escalations

It took nearly three years for Infotech to call bids for 4G-enabled smartphones. When the order for the devices was to be given, there was change of mind at the top level and the requirement was changed to 5G-enabled devices, citing superior technology.

The change escalated the cost of the procurement from nearly Rs 34 crore, including the state’s 40 per cent share, to about Rs 60 crore. The Punjab Government decided to bear the extra cost, said a government functionary.

But after the vendor selected to provide the agreed upon 5G devices said the agreed upon device was not in production, Infotech cancelled the order and started the process to again invite tender.

In the meantime, directions came from the government to revive the cancelled tender and opinion of the Advocate General (AG) was sought. This resulted in other bidders approaching the court and an adverse order against the procurement was passed. It is learnt that Infotech did not follow the procedure while getting nod from Government e-Marketplace (GeM), the national public procurement portal for reviving the previous tender.

While commenting on the case, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Raja Warring alleged that suspending two senior IAS officers without assigning any reasons showed that they had “apparently refused to follow some illegal diktats of the government”. “The smartphones could be used for party surveys elsewhere,” he alleged.