Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s relentless pursuit to eliminate corruption in the state has started paying off and he is emerging as the real architect of the new resurgent UP. In the last four and a half years of his tenure, the government departments have purchased items worth Rs 8,940 crore though Government e-Market (GeM) portal, ensuring total transparency in the dealings.
The Urban Development Department topped with the purchase of items worth Rs 3,190 crore, followed by the Health and Family Welfare Department which bought items worth Rs 2,720 crore and the Department of Basic Education which made purchases worth Rs 830 crore. The Urban Development Department also hired manpower worth Rs 2,600 crore through outsourcing.
Besides, the Medical Education Department, Home Department, Information and Public Relations Department, Skill Development Mission, Food and Logistics Department, General Administration Department and Rural Development Department have purchased items worth Rs 791 crore, 632 crore, 404 crore, Rs 352 crore, Rs 314 crore, Rs 294 crore and Rs 243 crore respectively.
The GeM portal also facilitated direct and indirect employment of more than two and a half lakh people in the industries listed on the portal. It is worth mentioning here that there are 12,847 government buyers and 2,21,450 sellers on the portal, including 62,973 micro and small entrepreneurs. In the last four and a half years, government departments have placed 5,86,651 orders worth Rs 13,597 crore.
The GEM portal was launched by the Central Government in August, 2016, but the previous Samajwadi Party Government shied away from implementing it. However, when CM Yogi took over, he made GeM and Trade Receivables Discounting System (TRADES) portal mandatory in August, 2017 for sale of industrial goods in government departments.
The UP Government has saved billions of rupees that was wasted during the previous governments due to rampant corruption in the government department dealings with connivance of some tainted officers.
Today the government department’s top priority is maintaining absolute transparency and quality in the departmental purchases being made by the Government through the portal.
It is noteworthy that Uttar Pradesh has made the highest procurement through GeM portal for the third year in a row. The state was honoured earlier by the Central Government with Best Buyer Award in 2018 and Super Buyer Award in 2019.
Furthermore, the purchases being made through the GeM portali. UP have been consistently rising with various departments buying items worth Rs 602 crore in the financial year 2017-18, Rs 1674 crore in 2018-19, Rs 2401 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 4675 crore in the financial year 2020-21. Till September 16 in the financial year 2021-2022, items worth Rs 4,192 crore were procured through the portal.
