On the eve of 100 days of forming the government in UP, the Akhilesh Yadav government has reason to cheer. In a step towards fulfilling a promise made in its poll manifesto, decks have been cleared for the procurement of as many as 26.62 lakh tablets and 17.98 lakh laptops worth approximately R1,800 crore that are to be distributed free of cost to school students.
In the Thursday board meeting of the Uttar Pradesh Electronics Corporation (UPECL), the nodal agency for procurement of laptops and tablets, a consultant has been identified for preparing the bid document. In a two-cornered fight, which saw Ernst & Young and KPMG submitting bids for providing consultancy for the scheme, KPMG emerged as the lowest bidder. The proposal would now be sent to the secondary education department, which will give a formal approval for the same within a few days.
Talking to FE, an official of the state government said, ?Now that the consultant has been identified, the scheme will take off in earnest and we expect the draft bid document to be prepared within the next fortnight. The draft RFP would then be discussed threadbare, and we expect the final selection to be finalised within the next four months after which the purchase order would be released.?
