Logged off: A middle school in Ormanjhi, Ranchi

Ranchi, Jan. 12: A Rs 40 crore project to teach computers to students of 480 middle schools has hit an unexpected hurdle after one of the bidders alleged unfair tender practices, forcing the state government agency to stall implementation for now.

A Chennai-based educational consultancy firm had complained to human resource development minister Baidyanath Ram and alleged Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC) had relaxed norms to benefit a multinational company to bag the contract worth around Rs 40 crore in next three years.

“We have postponed things at present and do not want to go on further till the controversy is resolved,” said Vinay Kumar Choubey, the project director with JEPC, the state level agency working for universalisation of elementary education under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.

“We will prefer to follow norms of JAP-IT (Jharkhand Agency for Promotion of Information Technology) which is also in the process of finalising tenders to select an agency to execute a computer education programme in over 1,000 high schools of Jharkhand,” he added.

The JEPC tenders, which were cancelled on January 9, were supposed to be opened today. The project, which was to start from April this year, was to be implemented in all 24 districts.

For a pilot project, 20 middle schools with classes six, seven and eight had been selected. In the next three years, computer classes were to be extended to most primary and middle schools.

According to sources, a tender clause allowing consortiums and multi-nationals to bid had apparently upset the Chennai-based agency that is already running similar programmes in Jharkhand as well in various other states.

For computer education in 1,068 high schools, a state human resource development ministry project, JAP-IT will be finalising tenders on January 17.

JAP-IT chief executive officer Satendra Singh said they were following the ministry’s guidelines. “A pre-bid meeting was held on January 4 and the response was quite good with about 40 companies showing interest,” he said.