Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam has written a letter to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis demanding an immediate termination of the seven-year contract awarded to Vidarbha Infotech Pvt Ltd in 2016, and initiate a departmental inquiry against the "errant" officers.
In the letter, Nirupam also stated that the government machinery has been manipulated and misused to award the contract to the Nagpur-based company in order to favour a few beneficiaries.
Demanding that the contract for undertaking towing services be terminated, Sanjay Nirupam said that the chief minister speaks about transparency in the functioning of the BJP government, but the action with regard to the process of allotting the contract to Vidarbha Infotech Pvt Ltd is questionable.
“It reeks of favouritism and nepotism since the firm is based in Nagpur which also happens to be the CM’s hometown. Various rules have been flouted in the process of allotting the towing contract to Vidarbha Infotech Pvt Ltd. It was mandatory to publish the tender in more than one newspaper i.e. national and regional language newspapers, as the cost involved exceeded Rs 5 crore. However, in this case, the tender was not published in any national newspaper. Where is the transparency in this entire process?” he asked.
In the letter, Nirupam also mentioned that the authority to approve purchases worth over Rs 1 crore lies with a high level committee under the additional chief secretary (home) and such approval wasn’t taken in this case. He also stated that the administrative approval of the government, which is mandatory before implementing the tendering process worth more than Rs 1 crore, was dodged here as well.
The president of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee brought to the notice of CM Fadnavis that the objection raised by the then Commissioner of Police Dattatray Padsalgilkar last year through a letter was conveniently ignored.
Nirupam further raised questions on the functioning of the Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) who awarded the contract to Vidarbha Infotech Pvt Ltd despite not being the competent authority to do so. He pointed out that no approval of even the Commissioner of Police, Brihanmumbai was taken.
In November 2017, Sanjay Nirupam had alleged that Vidarbha Infotech Pvt Ltd is a computer solutions company with no expertise in the field and had increased towing charges with no prior warning to the citizens. He also pointed out the proximity Pravin Darade, an IAS Officer from the CM’s office, shared with Vidarbha Infotech Pvt Ltd which he said was the reason behind allotment of this contract to the towing firm in question.