Hyderabad, May 12: Two ministers in the Kiran Kumar Reddy cabinet are locking horns over a school uniform contract. While one minister is irked over officials not consulting him before changing the contract, the other minister has come out in support of his officers and asked his colleague to check out the facts before making such baseless allegations.
The Central government supplies two pairs of uniform each to about 53 lakh students in government schools in the state. About Rs 200 crore is spent towards this scheme under Rajiv Vidya Mission. Initially, the authorities awarded a contract for supplying 50 per cent of these uniforms to the Andhra Pradesh State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society (APCO). But recently, the Rajiv Vidya Mission state project director Mohd Rafat Ali cancelled the previous order and placed a fresh order for supplying only 25 per cent uniforms. The contract for the remaining 25 per cent uniforms was given to other government agencies.
However, handlooms and textiles minister P Shanker Rao fumed at the officials concerned for taking the decision without consulting him. He accused the officials of taking unilateral decisions. Upset over the turn of events, Rafat Ali reportedly approached his senior officials to relieve him from the post.
Surprised over the developments, primary education minister S Sailajanath came to the rescue of Rafat Ali and reportedly complained against Shanker Rao to the chief minister for creating unnecessary controversies.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Sailajanath said that the decision to withdraw the previous order to APCO and issue fresh orders were taken when the APCO officials expressed their helplessness over supplying the uniforms on time.
“The chief minister asked Rafat Ali to give the order to another agency. How can the minister blame an officer for a collective decision taken at the highest level?,” he wondered.
–Agencies