CM assures House of probe after Oppn ruckus

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 20

The Food and Civil Supplies Corporation (FCSC) has yet not blacklisted the firms which had supplied substandard school uniforms to government schoolchildren free of cost for the past three years.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh stated in the Vidhan Sabha that a committee would probe the matter after BJP members created a ruckus.

But the “school uniform scam” has exposed the apathetic attitude of the governments. There is no hue and cry over the substandard uniforms as the children of poor and rural background study in government schools, said teachers.

The official data accessed by The Tribune revealed that the FCSC purchased school uniforms worth Rs 41.10 crore from an Ambala firm, Gupta Textile Trading Company, in 2012-13 during the BJP regime, when it had launched the Atal school uniform programme to get the political mileage in the Assembly elections.

Surprisingly, the corporation tested no sample then. As many as 13 firms, including the National Textile Corporation, JCT Mills and Mafatlal had participated, but the tender was given to Gupta Textiles from Ambala, revealed the official data.

Though there were large-scale complaints about the substandard quality of cloths, parents, teachers and students dismissed the matter because they were getting free uniforms.

The change of guard in the state did not change the quality and standard of uniforms. The FCSC and the department headed by the Transport and Food and Civil Supplies Minister GS Bali split the tender into two and awarded the contract to Banaswara Syntex, Mumbai, and RSWM Ltd (Mayur suiting), Noida, in 2013-14. The Mumbai firm got Rs16.32 crore contract while Noida firm got Rs18.93 crore.

In 2014-15, the government awarded two tenders to Gupta Textiles and Banaswara Syntex for Rs16.87 crore and Rs14.08 crore.

The FCSC started testing the cloth samples when the parents and teachers started questioning about the substandard uniforms.

As many as 129 samples out of 386 tested at labs failed, but no firm was blacklisted and the minister gave the statement that they had fined Rs 3.45 crore on the firms, the amount which is yet to be received from them, revealed insiders.