Fadnavisslamsgovtforscrapping MIEB
Former CM claimed international board shut after pressure from other boards; minister said no transparency in its functioning
MUMBAI: Leader of Opposition in the legislative Assembly and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday slammed the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government for scrapping the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB), and levelled allegations against several departments over irregularities and scams in the procurement and purchases made by the current government.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that MIEB was scrapped under pressure from the central boards whose student numbers dwindled after MIEB was launched and because the board was named after former prime minister and BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Fadnavis said that the MIEB formed by his government was not created impulsively and it was constituted after deliberation and preparations for over a year. “Of the 81 schools under the MIEB, 60 were zilla parishad schools and 12 were private-aided schools. This had allowed students from poor families to receive a world-class education in their own language. The scrapping of the board has deprived these students of quality education,” he said.
Replying to the allegations about MIEB, school education minister Varsha Gaikwad said that the board was controlled by a certain group of people and had no transparency in its working. “While Balbharati was expected to be responsible for designing the syllabus of the board, it did not even get credit in the books. The syllabus was not even approved by the Maharashtra State Council for Educational Research and Training (MSCERT) that prepares syllabi for school textbooks. The expert members such as Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, Dr Vijay Bhatkar hardly attended any meetings of the syllabus committee. The rest of the members were not qualified enough,” she said.
Fadnavis, who was speaking in the lower house during the debate on the department-wise budgetary allocation, alleged that blacklisted vendors were given the contract for milling and transportation of rice and coarse grain. “The mill owner who was blacklisted in November 2019 was given the contract in February 2020. The contractors were earlier booked under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and jailed. The contractors supplied sub-standard foodgrain through the public distribution system,” he said.
Food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal rubbished Fadnavis’ allegations and said no tender was given to blacklisted contractors. He announced that the department would take action against officials if found guilty.
Fadnavis also said that the procurement of material for tribal residential schools had irregularities in the bidding process. He said that the purchase worth crores of rupees was done without following due process. The purchases were done through the Maharashtra Powerloom Corporation despite it not producing the material procured.
Gaikwad said the changes made in the bidding process were to ensure fair competition. “We received responses from 168 bidders and it helped us keep the rate in control. The procurement was done by a committee appointed for it,” she said.