Over 7.77 lakh packets of rajgira chikki withdrawn in Ahmednagar. (Source: Express photo) Over 7.77 lakh packets of rajgira chikki withdrawn in Ahmednagar. (Source: Express photo)

Although the Congress has targeted Maharashtra Women and Child Development Minister Pankaja Munde, charging her with awarding contracts worth Rs 206 crore in violation of norms, it has emerged that the organisation that received the bulk of these contracts for supply of chikkis to aanganwadis, and has been accused of supplying sub-standard material, is, in fact, headed by a local Congress leader from Sindhudurg.

The Sindhudurg-based Suryakanta Mahila Audyogik Sahakari Sanstha, which according to the Congress’s complaint was awarded contracts worth Rs 114 crore on a single day, is headed by Pradnya Parab, Congress’s women’s cell head for the Sindhudurg district.

Senior Congress leader Sachin Sawant, who registered a complaint with the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Wednesday, had alleged nepotism in awarding contracts to a set of companies, including Suryakanta, and also raised questions over the quality of the supplies, especially chikkis. The ACB has now told the WCD department to respond.

Parab, a three-time local corporator, was earlier leading the women’s cell of the NCP in Sindhudurg district before she joined the Congress in 2010, she said. Senior Congress leader Narayan Rane had inaugurated Suryakanta’s first factory when the NGO started operating in 2005. “We started making chikkis and supplying them to the state government and at the district level for aanganwadis in 2011-12. Our only aim is to give employment to women in the district,” said Parab, 55.

A relative, who did not wish to be named, said they were not opposed to any political party, though the family supported and voted for the Congress. “Neither Pradnya tai, nor any other organisation member has even met Pankaja Munde,” he said.

Based in Vengurla, a beach town in Sindhudurg district, over 300 women work with Suryakanta, producing horticultural products — juices, squashes, jams, barfis — with fruits native to the Konkan district such as mangoes, jackfruit, amla and jamun. The organisation also makes dry coconut chikkis, peanut chikkis and ‘micro-nutrient’ chikkis, which Suryakanta claims is manufactured by very few players in the state.

According the NGO workers, Suryakanta works on a no-profit-no-loss basis with funds coming as loans from the district bank. In 2014, it clocked a turnover of close to Rs 35 crore.

According to documents that the Congress submitted to the ACB, the state government had issued resolutions for the award of three contracts for dry coconut chikki, rajgira chikki and micro-nutrient chikki to Suryakanta on February 13. The contract for micro-nutrient chikki was worth Rs 80 crore at a rate of Rs 28.50 per 100 gm. The contract for rajgira chikki was worth Rs 23.85 crore, assuming a rate of Rs 21.50 for 100 gm, while the contract for dry coconut chikki was worth Rs 10.41 crore (Rs 20 per 100 gm).

However, 61-year-old M K Gawade, adviser to Suryakanta and a cousin of Parab, said the NGO had received a contract of about Rs 75 crore — Rs 52 crore for peanut micro-nutrient chikki and Rs 22 crore for rajgira chikki — to supply a total quantity of about 3,000 tonne.

The compliant filed by the Congress had also relied on a letter from the Ahmednagar Zilla Parishad about the chikki having bits of sand and clay in it.

Gawade said, “The moment we learnt about the complaint, we immediately sent samples for testing to a government laboratory in Nagpur. The results say the samples are fine. However, we have sent the samples to another government laboratory in Delhi and are awaiting written results. We take all precautions to ensure our products are of the best quality.”

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