Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
The Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited (ASCDCL) chief executive officer (CEO) Abhijeet Chaudhari today confirmed that the office has discontinued the services of Media House.
It may be noted that the Media House was shortlisted without inviting any tender process. It was given the responsibility to publish advertisements worth crores of rupees in different media.
As per the norms, it is mandatory to obtain permission from the Board of Directors (BoD) of the ASCDCL. However, skipping the permission and tender procedure, Media House was appointed as the private agency on just an application made on plain paper (dated December 17, 2020). The agency was appointed on the next day and from the third day it was given the work.
The irregularity was busted by Tabrez Khan under the Right to Information (RTI). The information stated that the ASCDCL from January 12, 2021, to November 25, 2022, gave advertisements of around Rs 2 crore to the agency and an advertisement of Rs 35 lakh more was given in December 2022. The newspaper published the news highlighting the irregularity on February 1.
The CEO took cognizance and ordered the deputy CEO Saurabh Joshi to inquire, who then submitted the report during the last week. “On the basis of the report, the private agency has been discarded,” said Chaudhari.
It may be noted that the government has fixed the charges for advertisements to be published in the newspapers. However, the Media House was offering a 10 per cent concession in the government charges to ASCDCL. Chaudhari said that ASCDCL will tally the charges and if any irregularity is detected it would instigate a process to file a criminal offence against it.