Amid waiver controversy info tech dept loses power

Mumbai: Amid controversy over delay in waiver of farm loans, education fees and scholarship distribution schemes, and problems in procurement of various departments, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has cut down powers of the information and technology (IT) department. Under attack from the opposition, Mr Fadnavis, who helms the department, has ended up delegating IT purchase powers to the respective departments.

The CM was targeted by Shiv Sena and opposition for the mess in procurements, among other issues. NCP chief spokesperson Nawab Malik demanded a high-level enquiry into all purchases done in the past three years. He alleged that there was corruption involving crores of rupees and a few companies had been favoured. Mr Malik also targeted the CM’s OSD, Kaustubh Davse, for malpractices and making a mess of things. While the CM transferred principal secretary V.K. Gautam, Mr Malik and ex-CM Prithviraj Chavan demanded that action be taken against Mr Davse while speaking to The Asian Age.

Ultimately, the CM permitted releasing 60 per cent money for education fees and scholarships offline and took action against Mr Gautam. Now, all departments can purchase IT requirements directly from the central government’s web portal. As a result, procurement requests will no longer be received by the IT department; a practice that was made compulsory earlier because of the IT department’s expertise. The IT department has now been asked to set guidelines for IT procurement and respective departments can carry out the tendering process, sources revealed.