the goan I network
MARGAO
AAP also disclosed plans to move the Lokayukta to add the current tender to an earlier investigation of 2013 before it to save the taxpayers money by busting alleged cartelization in all kinds of such supplies.
AAP Goa leader and IT engineer, Edwin Vaz told the media in the presence of AAP leader Ranjit Cota Carvalho that the tender for the supply and maintenance of 45,000 laptop computers to students of Std XI and XII in Goa under the Cyberage Student Scheme 2017-18 as proposed by the Directorate of Education, for a whopping Rs 85.5 crore, needs to be probed.
“The BJP minority coalition is forcing ITG to resort to means to destroy the IT industry in Goa. Going by the massive number of laptops to be delivered and considering average sales of around 7,000 laptops annually, the tender accounts for an average of almost seven years of business value. As such, the business of computer dealership will no longer be sustainable and most local dealers will have to shut shop,” Vaz claimed.
He said the BJP had said in 2012 that Cyberage scheme would be modified to ensure that students in class XI and above procure laptops directly from dealers of their choice. “Given this background, we question the ulterior motive of the government in trying to deliberately push for this tender in its current form despite fully aware of the dire consequences to the Goan IT industry,” he added.
Vaz said stating that since warranty support is provided by all major laptop manufactures by default, the portrayal of the need of the dealer to be servicing the laptops for a period of one year is a farce designed to try and justify the need for the tender to be awarded to dealers rather than directly to the manufacturers.
