Chandigarh, September 6: Calling it one of the biggest scams of previous SAD-BJP government, the Congress had cancelled the contract of the service provider running over 2,100 sewa kendras in January this year.
In the recent Assembly session, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal had said the government would inquire into the Rs 1,400-crore deal signed by the previous SAD-BJP government with a private firm for running sewa kendras.
However, just a month before this announcement, the same service provider — BLS International — had been selected again to start operating two-third of the 515 sewa kendras that the government has now allowed to operate. Officials in the Punjab Governance Reforms Commission said the company bagged the contract to run the sewa kendras in two of the three zones created across the state. Other than the 162 kendras in six districts (Mohali, Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana and Patiala) allotted to another service provider, Dr ITM Planet, the remaining 352 kendras in 16 districts are again with BLS International.
Parminder Pal Singh, Director, Governance Reforms, Punjab, told The Tribune that they had invited fresh bids. “As many as three companies had applied, and we chose two of them. The reason that the earlier contract was cancelled was because of the nature of the agreement, wherein the state government was paying the service provider Rs 22 crore each month. As per the terms of the new agreement, the state exchequer will not be drained of its resources, rather the service provider, BLS International will be giving the state government 60 per cent of its profit earned from running the sewa kendras. The other service provider, Dr ITM Planet, will be giving 81 per cent of its profits to the state government,” he said. The state government estimates that on an average Rs 250 crore will come in its kitty each year, with the new arrangement.
Of the 2,147 sewa kendras, the Congress government had decided to keep only 515 operational. In January, the Council of Ministers decided to serve a 180-day notice, as required, to end the contract with the current service provider, BLS International, claiming that the provider was charging the government Rs 220 crore annually. It was pointed out that the sewa kendras were constructed at a cost of Rs 200 crore, with Rs 1,400 crore estimated to be spent on their operations in five years.
The Accountant General, too, had pointed out audit objections and called these kendras a fiscal liability, claiming that contract to BLS International was awarded at inflated rates by the previous Akali-BJP government and “unnecessary funds were spent to construct these kendras”, especially as the footfalls in many kendras were as low as eight in a day. Thus, the government decided to “rationalise” the kendras by operating only one-fourth of what were originally being operated.
Source Tribune India
