Income-tax raids on a school mid-day meal manufacturer and MP State Agro Industries Development Corporation (MPSAIDC) has uncovered a number of shady dealings involving influential officials who manipulated tenders to help the company, reported TNN.
The IT sleuths have names of 20 IAS officers who were involved in favouring the contractors, after scrutiny of documents recovered during searches on MP Agro Nutri Food, MP Agro Food Industry, MP Agrotonics Limited and the premises of two officers of MP State Agro Industries Development Corporation Limited.
These officials are now under IT scanner for their role in the company and ties with the manufacturers.
Evidence of manipulation has also been noticed in the sharing pattern — 30:70 per cent between MP Agro and the contractors, which was earlier maintained at 51:49 per cent. It was revealed by department sources that during the tenure of Tinu Joshi, who was principal secretary of woman and child department in 2010, the tender contract was changed as per the company’s wishes.
“It was Tinu Joshi, who, during a meeting, instructed the department officials not to indulge in politics over tender specifications. She had instructed to change the share to 30:70 from 51:49 per cent,” revealed a senior official of the department.
During her tenure, the manufacturers used to test their samples in their own labs, which as per Central guidelines should be tested by the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB). The officer appointed to examine the food quality had never reported any lapses.
It was also found that the supply of nutritious meal to the Aanganwadis or schools was disproportionate to the number of students. In some cases, students actually served meals were less than half of the numbers on paper. This was also never objected to by the administration.
In February 2010, IT teams recovered Rs 3 crore cash from the house of Tinu and her IAS husband Arvind Joshi. The two officials were suspended and their services terminated.
The women and child welfare department, which gets Central funding for the supply of nutritious mid-day meals for children and mothers, is now reviewing policy to bring in the 51:49 ratio.
As the new minister of the department Archana Chitnis observed: “We will not let anyone ‘eat’ the nutritious meal (Poshan Aahar) of our children”.
Sourced from TNN, Feature image courtesy: m.deseretnews.com
