Nagpur: With Nagpur staring at a frightening water crunch, reservoirs rapidly depleting and the civic administration grappling with the challenge of conserving every precious drop, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) appears to have found a rather expensive priority, Rs 1.48 crore for 365 Android tablets for corporators and municipal officials. The proposal has triggered uncomfortable questions over civic spending priorities, accountability and the apparent disregard for an earlier tablet distribution exercise that reportedly ended in technological failure and widespread non-utilisation.
The proposal, carrying an estimated expenditure of Rs 1.48 crore inclusive of taxes, provides for purchasing 365 tablets at Rs 38,999 apiece. The agenda for the Standing Committee meeting was issued on Tuesday, with the proposal scheduled for consideration at Friday’s meeting. The Municipal Commissioner had cleared the proposal on October 13.
Under the proposed procurement through e-tendering, tablets equipped with digital pens would be distributed among the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Standing Committee Chairperson, ruling and opposition leaders, corporators across political parties, and municipal officials, including department heads, Executive Engineers and junior engineers.
The Information Technology Department has defended the purchase, citing the increasing dependence on digital platforms such as the work module, e-office system, MIS portal, video conferencing and other technical applications. The civic administration has also cited the discontinuation of its earlier laptop supply service as justification for shifting to tablets. The municipal house subsequently approved the procurement proposal.
But the million-rupee question remains: What happened to the earlier tablets?
During the tenure of former Standing Committee Chairperson Avinash Thakre, the NMC had purchased and distributed tablets among corporators. The fresh agenda note itself acknowledges that most of those devices eventually stopped functioning, while several corporators reportedly found it difficult to operate them effectively.
Despite this costly technological fiasco, the civic administration is preparing to repeat the exercise on an even more substantial scale. More troublingly, the proposal offers no convincing roadmap for ensuring that the new devices will actually be used, maintained and monitored instead of becoming another collection of expensive electronic paperweights.
The timing of the proposed expenditure is particularly galling. Totladoh reservoir, Nagpur’s principal water source, had plunged to just 31.34% of its live storage capacity on October 31, against a staggering 92.42% on the corresponding date last year. The sharp deterioration in water availability has intensified concerns over the city’s preparedness for an impending shortage, with conservation, leakage control and efficient water management demanding urgent attention.
At a time when every rupee should be directed towards strengthening essential civic services and preparing the city for water scarcity, the proposed tablet expenditure has brought the NMC’s financial priorities under an uncomfortable spotlight.
The central question confronting Nagpurians is simple: When the city is struggling to secure its most essential resource, water, why is the civic administration so eager to spend crores on gadgets whose predecessors reportedly failed to serve their purpose?
Taxpayers deserve more than another procurement proposal. They deserve answers on the fate of the earlier tablets, their utilisation, the justification for repeating the purchase and the safeguards against another costly failure. Without these assurances, the latest tablet plan risks becoming a glaring symbol of misplaced priorities in a city desperately searching for water security.
