State Women and Child Welfare Minister Pankaja Munde has landed in a controversy with Opposition leader in the Legislative Council and her estranged cousin, Dhananjay Munde, alleging that her department was involved in a Rs 106-crore smartphone scam. He further said that the phones were bought for Anganwadi sevikas and supervising staff at a rate much higher than the market price.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Munde said the department paid at least Rs 2,800 more for each phone. A total of 1.20 lakh staff are eligible to get phones, he said, adding, while the cost of each one was Rs 6,000, the government paid Rs 8,800 to the supplier. "The judicial commission should investigate this scam," he added. "Mobile phones with better specifications are available at cheaper rates in the market. We should know why they were purchased at such a high price. The model, which the company supplied, is also not available in the open market, which makes repair work difficult. Its production was stopped four months ago," Munde said.