PIL alleges scam in BMC’s tab procurement

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday directed a social activist to give names of 10 Municipal Corporation schools in which tablets distributed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation were not working properly. The division bench of chief justice Manjula Chellur and justice G.S. Kulkarni asked activist Prithvi Maske to give names of 10 schools so that the court could include them as respondents.

"We could even form a committee of experts to find out if tabs distributed to standard 8 students are of high quality or not," said Justice Chellur.

However, the court has also asked BMC to file an affidavit on steps taken against the company, which has provided defective tablets.

During hearing, the  bench was informed that so far 22,000 tabs have been distributed to BMC schools and a contract of Rs 50 crore is in place for warranty of 3-years for these tabs.

The court was further informed that so far in less than 5 per cent tabs problems have been reported. The petitioner has also claimed that from 2016 till date, 15,000 phones have also been supplied and he has learnt from school that these are not working properly.

Mhaske had filed a Public Interest Litigation, alleging a scam in the procurement of tablets and their distribution by the civic body in schools. He has also sought an independent investigation into the alleged scam by Special Investigating Team (SIT) or the CBI.

According to the petitioner, he first came to know about the alleged fraud when he went through features of one of the tabs being used by a child in his neighbourhood.  Following this he filed several RTIs from August 2015 onwards, seeking details of tender allotment and distribution of these tabs to school children.