After handing out laptops and smartphones to its corporators, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation sure seems to have got savvy with technology. However, corporators are still to put these devices to any real work-related use, since they are yet to be configured on their respective networks.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos phones that the civic body bought at a price of Rs 10,500 each - incidentally Rs 1,000 more than the handset’s market price - have been lying idle for the past two weeks. The SIM cards were allotted a few days ago but they are yet to be activated. Moreover, to the dismay of a few, the BMC is tilting towards getting the corporators pre-paid connections so the budget set aside for paying the phone bills is not exceeded. The BMC has decided to allocate aboutu00a0Rs 1,250 per month to every corporator towards recharges.