Following the report of a third party inquiry which confirmed that the equipment purchased for weight and length measurements in the Anganwadi centres of the State are of inferior quality, the State administration has decided to file an FIR against the company which has supplied these equipment. The Pioneer in its edition of November 12 had published a report on whiff of a scam in purchase of equipment worth Rs 11.50 crore for 20,069 Anganwadi centres.
The women and child development secretary, Sowjanya, confirmed that the inquiry by third party has found the equipment of inferior quality. The third party inquiry was conducted by weights and measurement department which found that apart from being faulty and error prone, the supplier had not got the necessary clearance from the weight and measurement department. These devices included infantometer, stadiometer, child weighing machines and mother and child weighing machines.
The machines were purchased with a budget of Rs 11.50 crores provided by the Government of India under its child nutrition programme.
After receiving complaints about these machines, the department had stopped the payment of the firm which supplied these machines.
Each of these machines cost between Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,650 a piece. The machines were supplied by a Gujarat-based company, The Apple Weighinfra limited which was awarded the tender of supplying the machines in February this year.
The Anganwadi workers complained that the machines were giving faulty measurements and their displays too was not clear.
These growth monitoring devices were installed in the Anganwadi centres to get the real time picture of the growth status of the children.
The data of these machines are uploaded in the nutrition monitoring software of the Integrated Child Development Services ( ICDS)-Common Application Software (CAS).