‘Donga Mama’ Doing Chikki Scam: TDP

The TDP unearthed yet another scam by the YCP government in the PM Poshan scheme, sponsored and supported by the central government. The opposition party provided evidences regarding the Rs 200-crore chikki scam and demanded scrapping the tenders and also a CBI inquiry into it.

The Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government changed the clauses specifying the eligibility of bidders and even disqualified two organisations which are operated by the central government to let the CM’s coterie enter the area and take kickbacks from them, alleged TDP spokesperson Pattabhi.

He urged the school children to understand that Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy was ‘Donga Mama’ who was trying to eat into funds allocated to them but not ‘Menamama’ (maternal uncle) as was claimed by him during his Praja Prasthanam walkathon.

PM Poshan

As part of the PM Poshan scheme, chikki (made of groundnut and jaggery) is given to the children of government schools and anganwadi centres thrice in a week. For the implementation of the scheme, the Centre provides 60% of the funds while the respective state governments bear the remaining expenditure. However, Jagan renamed the same scheme as Jagananna Gorumudda and the TDP leader criticized the CM for prefixing his name for the central government scheme.

Presenting the documented evidences of the scam, Pattabhi said that two central government organizations, Kendriya Bandar, also called Central government employees cooperative society, and NCCF National Cooperative Consumers Federation had been disqualified in the technical evaluation for supply of chikki to schoolchildren.

It would be surprising to know that Kendriya Bandar supplies chikki to the President of India and also the PM’s residence, apart from the Parliament, but was disqualified by the AP government. The two organisations have been disqualified to give way to six other state firms, from whom the CM had received kickbacks, Pattabhi said.

Changes to clauses

Changes were made to the clauses on the average annual turnover in the 2021-22 tender document from that existing in that of 2020-21. The earlier tender document insisted on an annual turnover equal to or more than the bid value for the bidder in the previous three years but in the last year’s document, it was reduced to one year so as to enable firms of CM’s choice enter the bid process, alleged the TDP.

The other clause which was compromised upon was the mandatory food safety certificates including Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) and ISO. While the previous tender document asked for all the three certificates, the latest asked the bidder to possess only the FSSAI certificate. HACCP certification is an international tendering standard.

The YCP government also meddled with one other clause relating to experience of the bidder in supplying chikki to any government department, PSU by adding ‘any private limited company’ in the latest one. Is it to qualify the companies you have included in the cartel, Pattabhi questioned.

Similarly, while tenders were called for 4 packages earlier, the government has increased the number to six packages and also the bid value to Rs 198 crore from the earlier Rs 136 crore, a jump by Rs 62 crore. The package for Uttarandhra three districts has been stepped up to Rs 31.04 crore from the earlier Rs 24.5 crore.

The six firms Victory Bazaar- Ravulapalem, Sambasiva Dairy Products, Sunwaria Sweets, M for Millets, Maruthi Agro, Balaji Groundnut Oil Ltd.

Kendriya Bandar moves HC

Peeved over the disqualification in the technical evaluation, Kendriya Bandar approached the High Court. The tenders were invited in September 2021 and the process of finalizing the bids was completed by December. Kendriya Bandar, in its affidavit, mentioned that some organizations qualified presently have turned into a cartel and dividing the zones and work.

Kendriya Bandar also pointed out to the irregularities in the bid selection process stating that Maruthi Agro had taken GST registration only in September 2020 while the tender document asked for filing GST returns for last three years. Further Maruthi Agro has set up manufacturing facility recently and obtained the license in 2021. Similarly, Balaji Groundnut Oil has no experience of supplying chikki to any government organization.

Adding insult to the injury, the Kendriya Bandar officials in Andhra Pradesh were intimidated forcing the organization to withdraw their affidavit filed in the High Court, Pattabhi alleged. He charged Jagan with looting public money in the name of reverse tendering by forming syndicates even when the tendering process has been made online.

It is disgusting to know that the CM is stooping to a very low level and trying to siphon off funds from even those allocated to the children, the TDP leader lamented.

On one hand, Jagan says quality education and food should be supplied to schoolchildren as they are the future citizens of the state but on the other, he is trying to compromise in the schemes being implemented for them, said senior leaders of various opposition parties.