Another Maharashtra minister under cloud over contracts, Tawde denies allegations of wrongdoings

Troubles mounted for the Fadnavisgovernment in Maharashtra today with a second minister comingunder a cloud over award of a Rs 191 crore contract withoutinviting tendersThe allegations against Education Minister Vinod Tawdecame within days of Women and Child Development MinisterPankaja Munde facing similar accusations in awarding contractsfor various purchases worth Rs 206 crore on a single day inFebruary without following the mandatory etendering processThe matter relates to the Education department issuing aGovernment Resolution authorising the office of the EducationDirector Primary to enter into a contract for supply of62105 fire extinguishers for Zilla Parishad schools acrossthe state on February 11 without inviting tendersEach fire extinguisher was to be procured at a price of Rs8321 and each school was to be provided three piecesThe contract cleared by Tawde has however been put onhold after the Finance Department objected to it and sought aprobe official sources saidVinod TawdeThe firstever BJPled government in Maharashtra has madeetendering of contracts mandatory for all purchases above Rsthree lakhTawde a key minister in the Devendra Fadnavisgovernment however claimed no irregularity was committed ascontractors had not been paidNot a single rupee has been paid to contractors Westopped the order immediately after the Finance Departmentraised objections Tawde told reporters todayTop BJP ministers in the Fadnavis government were quick tojump to his defenceAt a hurriedly convened press conference this afternoonFinance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said The Opposition ismaking a mountain out of molehillFlanked by Mungantiwar and Cooperatives MinisterChandrakant Patil Tawde said he had only complied with aSupreme Court order on providing firefighting equipment toschoolsAbout Rs 6crore worth equipment was delivered but nopayment has been made Tawde saidThough BJP ministers came to the defence of a beleaguredTawde faultlines were visible yet again in the partys tieswith Shiv Sena a junior partner in the Fadnavis governmentSena MP Arvind Sawant said both Tawde and Munde shouldstep down and face a probeWhen such an incident had happened during BalasahebsBal Thackeray time he asked for proof against his ministerWhen he prima facie found substance in the material given tohim he asked his minister to resign face an inquiry andasked him to come out cleanHe had categorically told his minister that he would bereinstated if he comes clean in the inquiry Similar standardsshould be applied here Why be scared of an inquiry Sawanttold PTIReferring to the allegations against Munde Sawant saidUddhavji had said allegations against her are serious The CMis competent enough to look into the matter We are waitingfor his statement nowMunde daughter of late Gopinath Munde a BJP stalwartfrom Maharashtra has been accused of clearing purchases worthRs 206 crore for various articles like snacks books disheswater filters mats etc for schools under the Integrated ChildDevelopment Services Fadnavis had defended Pankaja saying the funds would haveexpired had purchases not been cleared in time He had alsosaid the etendering practice was introduced by his governmentin April this year while purchases were cleared in FebruaryIn his defence Tawde said Rs 18 crore had been earmarkedfor buying fire extinguishers in the Education departmentsbudget However implementing an apex court order forproviding firefighting equipment to schools would have costRs 191 croreI the department had Rs 18 crore I could have easilypurchased equipment worth that amount If I were to complywith the SC order I would have needed Rs 191 crore I askedFinance Department what should I doThere was already a provision of Rs 18 crore made byearlier Congress government for purchase of firefightingequipment in schools Tawde saidHad we wanted we could have ordered equipment based onthat provision However we approached the finance departmentasking about providing the equipment to all the schools Thatamount came to Rs 191 crore That is what is being referred toas the Rs 191 crore scam despite the fact that not a singlerupee has been given to anyone Tawde saidCooperatives Minister Chandrakant Patil said the thenCongress government had decided to order fire extinguishersafter over 100 students had been killed in a blaze in TamilNadu and stipulated installing the equipment in schoolsIf there are such baseless allegations we wont do suchessential things procure equipment even if there is contemptof court Patil said