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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Rs 1,136-cr digitisation contract under scanner

Disclosures on pricing and volumes in a five-year modernisation project have raised questions about costs and oversight. Mumbai: A project described as a routine “digital transformation” of Maharashtra’s registration machinery has raised eyebrows after regulatory disclosures indicated that its billing could reach a staggering Rs 1,136 crores over five years. The Inspector General of Registration & Controller of Stamps (IGR), which comes under the state’s revenue department, has issued a...

Rs 1,136-cr digitisation contract under scanner

Disclosures on pricing and volumes in a five-year modernisation project have raised questions about costs and oversight. Mumbai: A project described as a routine “digital transformation” of Maharashtra’s registration machinery has raised eyebrows after regulatory disclosures indicated that its billing could reach a staggering Rs 1,136 crores over five years. The Inspector General of Registration & Controller of Stamps (IGR), which comes under the state’s revenue department, has issued a Letter of Intent to a consortium led by the Navratna public-sector firm RailTel Corporation of India Ltd., alongside the Nashik-based infrastructure company Ashoka Buildcon Ltd. The consortium has been appointed as managed service provider for a comprehensive modernisation of IGR offices across the state. The five-year turnkey contract covers end-to-end operation and maintenance of IT systems, networks, cloud services and application infrastructure, as well as the scanning of official documents. Execution is scheduled to run until March 19, 2032. It is the financial structure, rather than the scope, that has prompted unease. The approved rate for scanning registered documents is Rs 24.75 per page. Industry sources say prevailing market prices for bulk document scanning typically range between Rs 3 and Rs 6 per page - roughly a quarter of the contracted rate. Costly Contract In identical filings with the NSE and BSE last week, the consortium partners referred to historical data in the request for proposals showing that an average of 9.18 crores pages were scanned annually over the past five years. At the agreed rate, this would translate into payments of around Rs 227 crores a year, taking the projected total to about Rs 1,136 crores over five years. The contract does not specify a ceiling, and payouts are expected to vary with actual volumes. Critics and watchdogs argue that the absence of a fixed cap, combined with a per-page charge well above market levels, leaves room for inflated bills or padded volumes. Prafful Sarda, a Pune-based social worker, questioned the rationale for outsourcing the task. Even if Rs 10 per page were taken as a generous benchmark using advanced machines, Sarda asked, “what is the need to award the scanning contract at a massive cost to outsiders when the state government can itself do it at a much lower cost.” He also raised doubts about the composition of the consortium. “What is the expertise in IT-related work of Ashoka Buildcon Ltd., which is a road infra developer. Moreover, scanning is an easy process – a 100-page file can be scanned and uploaded in barely five minutes. Massive discounts are offered for bulk works. Are the IGR staffers so over-burdened that scanning work has to be outsourced at exorbitant public cost?” Sarda said. According to him, contractors would gain access to sensitive land and property records, as well as information on real-estate preferences and market trends, potentially giving them an early advantage in identifying future development opportunities. He compared the case to what he described as the IRCTC spending Rs 2,619 crores on website upkeep and maintenance over three years, along with Rs 1,950 crores in UPI fees, figures cited in an RTI reply and reported earlier by this newspaper. When contacted, a spokesperson for Ashoka Buildcon said the company was a minority partner in the RailTel-led consortium and that “hence, we are not allowed to speak in the matter.” The spokesperson also declined to comment on when the five-year contract would commence, noting only that the stipulated completion date is March 2032.

Clever seat selection helped BJP to secure historic win

The party won 65 seats against Congress, 37 against NCP (SP) and 29 against Shiv Sena (UBT)

Clever seat selection

Mumbai: The BJP’s strategic seat sharing with the allies has proved beneficial for the party. An analysis of the Assembly election results show that the BJP has scored over its main rival, the Congress, in a big way because of the direct fights.


The analysis shows that BJP defeated all three constituents of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) – Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) – in the direct fights. This is attributed as one of the reasons for the BJP’s historic poll success.


The BJP contested 147 out of 288 seats. In 76 constituencies, it faced Congress. BJP secured victory in 65 seats and lost only 11 seats, making it a whopping 86 per cent of the total direct fights. This was followed by an even stronger performance against NCP (SP). Of the total 39 fights with Sharad Pawar’s party, BJP captured 37 seats making it 95 per cent of the total fights with NCP (SP). BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) were head-to-head in 32 constituencies, of which BJP emerged victorious in 29 seats, making this 91 per cent of the total direct contests.


According to a BJP strategist the party had bargained hard with its allies, Shiv Sena and NCP to get the desired constituencies in the seat sharing formula. “We had studied to potential candidates of the MVA. That helped us in choosing the seats where we can register comfortable victories,” the strategist said.


BJP spokesperson Niranjan Shetty attributed the success to all the party workers who worked hard to boost development, infrastructure in the state. He gave credit to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his contribution to the party’s success.


Shetty pointed out that in 2019, Uddhav Thackeray had stalled all the “novel” and “legendary” projects that Fadnavis had started when he had taken over as CM, making it very easy for the people of Maharashtra to strike a comparison between both the leaders and the potential they had for serving the people. “Devendra Fadnavis gave up his post very easily for the larger good. There are many such examples like Venkaiah Naidu who was BJP National President and later worked as the Vice President of India because that was the need of the hour. We seldom care about our posts,” Shetty told The Perfect Voice.


Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe refused to call the election results as the people’s mandate. “This is not at all a Janata mandate. Despite Maharashtra struggling with so many basic social issues, how can BJP acquire such a huge mandate is the question. If a student copies and fails with just passing marks, it can go unnoticed, but if a student copies and bags the number one position, something is fishy. Why is the BJP scared of ballot papers?” he said.

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