CM Adityanath pitches for e-tendering to curb mafia

The Uttar Pradesh government will award contracts through e-tendering to remove "mafia and criminal elements", chief minister Yogi Adityanath said on Friday as he pitched for digital payments to eliminate corruption.

"All the contracts will be awarded through e-tendering.

This will remove the mafia and criminal elements from the contract chain, as these elements do not want transparency. The quality of these contracts was very bad and there were no DPRs (detailed project reports)," the chief minister said. It was due to these factors that there were cost escalations for projects, delays in completion, besides inconvnience to the public, he said.

"The UP government is committed to keep these elements (mafia) away from the contracts," Adityanath said.

To bring transparency there is need to adopt the new cashless systems, he said adding that 60,000 service centres in UP have been linked to 'Digi Dhan'. "Efforts should be made so as to bring more and more people under the ambit of digtal payment. This will help in eradicating corruption from the society," Adityanath said, while addressing a gathering at the 'Digi Dhan Mela' being held here. He added that IT Parks would be established in the state. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister also lavished praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that before Modi took over, people had "no faith in their representatives".

"But after PM Modi assumed office, an atmosphere of trust has increased in the country," he said.Adityanath reiterated that by November 2018, all the villages and households in the state will get electricity supply. "Earlier damaged transformers languished for 3-4 months awaiting repair. But now the government has instructed the energy department to ensure that damaged transformers in rural areas are repaired in 48 hour, while those in urban areas are repaired in 24 hours," the CM said.