News Tamil Nadu

DMK Govt Buys Mid-Day Meal Eggs From Subsidiaries Of Company That Provided Low Quality Pongal Kits, RTI Reveals

November 23, 2022
The Commune

According to an RTI filing regarding the Tamil Nadu government’s procurement of eggs for the midday meal scheme, the DMK Stalin government has given contracts to the same companies that Stalin accused of corruption when he was in opposition.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, while he was the opposition leader of Tamil Nadu, accused the then-ruling Edappadi government of ₹500 crore corruption in procuring eggs for the midday meal scheme, claiming that the ADMK government paid more than the market price for the eggs, and vowed to conduct an investigation when they came to power.

Despite the fact that the DMK has been in power for a year and a half, no investigation into the AIADMK regime’s alleged egg procurement scandal has taken place. Furthermore, the RTI revealed that the procurement of eggs for the fiscal year 2021-2022 was handled by the same companies that MK Stalin had accused of corruption while he was the opposition leader. According to an RTI, the DMK government also awarded the egg tender to subsidiaries of a company that was fined for providing substandard items in the Tamil Nadu government’s “Pongal package” last year.

Yuvaraj Ramalingam, an RTI activist, filed a petition seeking the details of the list of companies that were awarded government tenders for the procurement of eggs and their prices of procurement from 2014 to May 2021 and May 2021 to the present.

The RTI reply reveals that the average price of an egg purchased for the midday meal scheme in the fiscal year 2021-2022 is ₹5.25, which is significantly higher than the market wholesale price of eggs.

The RTI also revealed that the tenders were awarded to companies such as Suvarnabhoomi Enterprises Private Limited, a company that is linked to Christy Foods Private Limited which had provided low-quality Pongal gifts.

TS Kumarasamy who is one of the directors of Suvarnabhoomi Enterprises Private Limited is also the director of Christy Foods Private Limited.

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