The Punjab government Wednesday decided to hand over the smartphones, procured for anganwadi workers, to the enumerators of drug and caste-based socioeconomic survey, it has been learnt.

The government had recently confirmed that it has procured 28,515 Samsung 5G smartphones for Rs 57 crore under a scheme funded by the Government of India. Sources in the Punjab government said that these phones were sent to at least five districts on Monday to be distributed among anganwadi workers. But later it was decided to pass these on to the enumerators.

“We need these phones for the 28,000 enumerators. They are doing an important task. After they are done with the census, these will go to Anganwadi workers,” said a functionary of AAP.

The department of Social Security, Women and Child Development, which had started distributing these phones to Anganwadi centres, has decided to pass these on to the rural development and panchayats department, the nodal department for drug census.

Women and child welfare Minister Dr Baljeet Kaur was not available for comments even after repeated attempts.

Am AAP spokesperson said, “The government is trying to ensure best utilisation of resources by ensuring convergence of resources. So, the same phones can be used for both the activities”.

Punjab President of the Anganwadi Worker Helper Union, Barinderjit Kaur Chhina told The Indian Express that the minister told her on Monday that they would be given the phones , “They told us the phones have been procured. The state government is in the process of handing these over. Now, it is different story. I have learnt that these are being give to drug census enumerators. This is unfair. I will speak to the functionaries in the morning”.

Chhinna said they would not accept used smartphones at any cost as they have learnt these are being given to BLOs assigned drug census duty.

On February 7, the government had put under suspension IAS officers KK Yadav and Jaspreet Singh, who were Administrative Secretary Industries and Commerce, Investment Promotion, and MD Infotech respectively at that time. Delay in procurement of these phones was cited to be the reason. The procurement was initiated under the Department of Social Security, with Punjab Infotech handling the tender, where irregularities and significant delays occurred. The suspension came for the officials associated with Punjab Infotech.

The procurement, aimed at empowering anganwadi workers under the Poshan Abhiyan, a central government sponsored scheme, is funded by the Centre. It is to monitor the implementation of its scheme through an app for which anganwadi workers needed to fill data from the field.

Punjab was to procure 28,515 smartphones, needed to track nearly 12 lakh beneficiaries under Poshan Abhiyaan using the face recognition system (FRS). The scheme was launched in 2018 and Rs 27 crore was allocated to the Department of Social Security and Women and Children Development Department for procuring the smartphones. To be funded by Centre and Punjab in 60:40 ratio, the initial cost of the procurement was pegged at Rs 34 crore (including Rs 27 crore in central share). The department, in turn, had entrusted the Punjab INFOTECH to procure the mobile phones that were to be handed over to the anganwadi workers. The process, however, got delayed with the state government initially inviting tenders for 4G enabled phones before deciding to procure 5G ones even as it led to an escalation in cost to nearly Rs 60 crore.