BRS alleges Rs 900-crore scam in Telangana residential school food procurement

BRS general secretary R S Praveen Kumar alleged a Rs 900-crore scam in centralised food procurement for Telangana’s residential welfare schools. He demanded a SIT probe, questioned NACOF’s selection and raised concerns over food quality, pricing and accountability.

Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) alleged a Rs 900-crore scam in the proposed procurement of food supplies for Telangana’s residential welfare schools for SC, STs, BCs, and minorities through centralised supplpy system under th Congress government. The party warned that the new system could compromise the quality of food served to students and endager their health.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, BRS general secretary, R S Praveen Kumar demanded a SIT probe into the procurement process and challenged the government to prove that NACOF was a credible food supply agency. Stating that the BRS will pursue the issue until those responsible were held accountable, he urged parents and residential-school principals to raise objections before the supplies were delivered.

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He said tenders worth Rs 900 crore had been finalised to centralise procurement and supply food items to residential schools through a single agency, NACOF. He stated that the decision would replace the earlier district-level procurement system supervised by Collectors, under which quality food was supplied.

“Without any information to the Ministers concerned, the proposals were cleared from the Chief Minister’s Office. I challenge the Ministers to prove otherwise by releasing their signed orders,” he remarked.

Presenting branded and quality food supplies to the media at Telangana Bhavan here, he alleged that the tenders allowed supply of unbranded products and procurement at prices higher than market rates. He questioned the selection of NACOF, pointing uot that the agency was earlier been blacklisted by Telangana Markfed, and had a history of controversies.

The BRS leader cited alleged price differences, claiming that products previously costing Rs 60 were now being procured for Rs 240, while bunker beds costing Rs 15,000 were being purchased for Rs 30,000. He said locally sourced toor dal from Tandur was being replaced with poor quality dal imported from Africa. He questioned the decision to entrust the entire supply to one agency for lakhs of students and sought details of its management and accountability.

Praveen Kumar reminded that the BRS earlier flagged alleged irregularities worth Rs 2,000 crore in supplies to residential institutions, forcing the government to slowdown, calling the latest episode as another attempt to loot public money and supply poor quality food threatening health of students.

He stated that under the previous BRS government, students were provided five eggs a week, besides chicken four times and mutton twice a month. However, he said the Congress government reduced the provisions.