IANS/Mumbai
Under fire for alleged irregularities in awarding contracts for materials worth Rs2bn for schoolchildren, Maharashtra’s Women and Child Welfare Minister Pankaja Munde yesterday denied any scam and said she was prepared for an inquiry.
“This is a scam of words. The allegations against me are politically motivated,” said Pankaja, daughter of late central minister Gopinath Munde.
She said the earlier Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government in Maharashtra purchased similar items at a cost of Rs4bn.
“You term that a ‘purchase’ and call our procurement a ‘scam’,” Munde said at a press conference.
The minister is accused of flouting procedures in awarding contracts for supplying items like ‘chikki’ (sweetmeat made with nuts and jaggery), mats, notebooks, water filters, etc for schoolchildren.
Claiming that the items were purchased at a higher price by the previous government, Munde said the charges against her were totally baseless.
“I want every child to fight malnourishment. I will ensure that this happens,” she declared, giving a point-by-point rebuttal of the allegations.
Munde accused the opposition of pinning the scam on to a Bharatiya Janata Party minister and said there was nothing wrong in the purchases made through the rate contract system.
“There is no irregularity of even a single rupee. My department and I are ready to face any probe and shall also reply to the queries by the Anti-Corruption Bureau,” she said.
Congress spokesman Sachin Sawant lodged a complaint with the ACB demanding an inquiry into the allegations against Munde and submitted a file of documents purportedly supporting the charges.
The ACB has written to the state government asking for its replies to the charges.
Munde also claimed that the opposition parties prepared a file of allegations against her and submitted it to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the first week of May, but Fadnavis did not find any wrongdoing on her part.
Munde was joined at the press conference by Housing Minister Prakash Mehta, BJP’s ally Rashtriya Samaj Paksh chief Mahadev Jankar, her sister and party MP from Beed Preetam Munde and others.
