PIL alleges tablet scam worth crores

A social activist has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay high court alleging fraud of crores of rupees in supply of tablets to class 8 students of municipal corporation schools.

The petitioner has sought an independent investigation into the alleged scam by a Special Investigating Team (SIT) or the CBI.

Prithvi Maske, president of NGO Sangharsh, filed the PIL through Narendra Dubey, claiming that the tabs provided to students in BMC schools are not good.

According to the petitioner, he came to know about the alleged fraud when he saw one child residing in his neighbourhood using the tablet, which has been allotted by the BMC.

The petition has stated that when the petitioner was going through the features of the tablet, he found that it was not working properly.

Following this, he filed several RTIs from August 2015 onwards seeking details of tender allotment and distribution of these tabs in municipal schools in Mumbai.

The petition said that from details collected though RTI he came to conclusion that there was a fraud and scam in this matter and he complained to the department concerned and the authorities but they failed to take any action in this regard and hence he filed a PIL.

According to the petition, tender was invited on May 15, 2015 for supply of Tablets and there was a scam in selection, allotment, and purchase of tabs.

The petitioner has requested the court to direct all concerned respondents to submit all the documents regarding selection, allotment, eligibility, grounds of selection, purchase and distribution of tabs. It has also asked the court to direct the BMC not to continue the impugned contract.

The petition has alleged that the company, which was given job of providing tabs to the BMC, did not fulfil the criteria of having experience of implementation of audio–video textbook-based contents as per the Maharashtra state syllabus for at least 350 government or semi government aided schools.

The court is expected to hear this petition on September 1.