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Rajasthan Minister Madan Dilawar has accused the previous Ashok Gehlot-led government of involvement in a massive Rs 1,705 crore scam, focusing on mid-day meal schemes and inflated student numbers at madrasas.
Speaking to the ANI, Dilawar said, "One scam is about mid-day meals. This was a scam of crores of Rupees." According to Dilawar, the mid-day meal scheme, which was supposed to provide meals to students during the COVID-19 pandemic, was marred by fraud. "During Corona, the students were not provided mid-day meals; they had said that students should be given mid-day meals," he explained. He detailed, "They said that they would do it cumulatively and invited contracts for the same. Confed too was one of the interested parties, but they rejected it. But it is a government agency. Then they gave the contract to state government's Consumers Cooperative Wholesale Stores Limited (confed). The confed, in turn, sub-let it to another party, which was again sub-let to some other party. Then, these material were purchased." Dilawar added that the food was procured at inflated prices, citing an example where dal, which was provided by NAFED at Rs 50 per kilogram, was bought at a much higher cost. "We have found more than 17 lakh packets in Jaisalmer. But the documents show that students have received the food. So, this is all a lie," he said. The minister further claimed that the food agency confirmed that less than 60 per cent of the material was actually taken from them. "This is a Rs 1,705 crore scam. We spoke with the food agency which said that not even 60 per cent of the material was taken from them," Dilawar noted. He also mentioned that the investigation into the matter was previously cancelled, and a new investigation committee would be formed to thoroughly examine the case. Dilawar did not stop there, turning his attention to another alleged scam involving madrasas. "As far as Madrasas are concerned, they inflated the total number of students from 1,30,000 to 2,08,000. This is on paper. This too is a scam worth crores and it took place during Congress regime," he said. He vowed to thoroughly investigate these cases, saying, "We will go into the depths of the matter. We will find out the culprits, however big they might be. We hope that the investigation committee submits the report at the earliest." (ANI)
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