A tender to buy around 70,000 smartphones for anganwadi workers in Madhya Pradesh has been cancelled by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government after Imarti Devi, Jyotiraditya Scindia loyalist and Women and Child Development minister in Kamal Nath government, alleged corruption.
However, the Congress has hit out former minister Imarti Devi and said that allegations made by her are completely baseless.
The tender to procure smartphone for anganwdi workers was given a green signal by Kamal Nath government on the advice of the then Women and Child Development minister Imarti Devi.
However, the project was sidelined when Kamal Nath resigned from his post after his government was reduced to a minority following the resignation of 22 Congress MLAs and Shivraj Singh came to power. Moreover, the tender has now been cancelled after she raised objection alleging irregularities.
According to Imrati Devi, the tender was approved in haste just a day before Kamal Nath tendered his resignation. She said that tender was given to a blacklisted company – N S Infra.
Imrati Devi said she had written a letter to the concerned department in this regard. But Kamal Nath in connivance with the officers of the department issued tender for phone much more expensive than that pre-decided price of 7950. This was when much better and upgraded phone was available at a lower price in the market.
Hitting out at Imarti Devi, Congress leader Dharmendra Sharma told MPBreaking News that the allegations made by her are totally baseless.
