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Updated: Dec 20, 2018 08:36 IST

The scheme of former chief minister Raman Singh to give smartphones to five million families in Chhattisgarh was stopped by new state CM Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday, officials said.

Singh had introduced the scheme about six months ago as a poll sop and a telecom operator was selected to distribute the phones to the families. “There are lots of questions that needs to be answered related to allocation of a tender to a particular service provide. Everything related to the scheme is under scrutiny,” said a senior Indian Administragtive Service officer, after the CM held a meeting on the scheme.

The Chhattisgarh government on Wednesday issued a press release saying that the distribution of the smartphones under Sanchar Kranti Yojana (SKY) scheme has been postponed till further orders.

“About two million phones are yet to be distributed and hence the distribution is postponed till the issues involving the tender is resolved. The other reason for stopping the scheme is some technical issues with the smart phones that have been distributed,” the officer said, adding that the phone displays picture of Raman Singh and there are some applications of the earlier BJP government which need to addressed.

Another officer in the chief minister office said there were also complaints about the smart phone performance and in some cases the phone had burst because of overheating.

Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Sacchinnand Upasane said: “The scheme was for the development and welfare of people of Chhattisgarh but Congress did not want the progress of Chhattisgarhi people. It is sad that SKY scheme has been postponed.”

The Raman Singh government had planned to distribute 4.06 million smartphones to the women heads of rural households, 5.60 lakh to women heads of urban poor households, and about four lakh to college students — both boys and girls.

The Raman Singh government initiated smartphone distribution in May 2018 and was planning to complete it by the end of March 2019.