Chennai: State Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar hit out at Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan for allegedly taking up a “smear campaign” against the AIADMK government on the issue of egg procurement for anganwadis in the State.
He warned the Union Minister to stop heaping up baseless charges on the State government and said he should immediately put an end to spreading misinformation campaign about the egg procurement for the mid-day meal scheme in government schools.
He was reacting to Mr. Radhakrishnan allegation of Rs. 5,000 crore scam in the procurement of eggs for schools by the Tamil Nadu government.
Mr. Jayakumar told reporters here on Monday that the Income Tax department had raided the premises of the contractor of eggs for alleged tax evasion but this did not mean there were irregularities in supplying eggs to the schools.
On July 5, the Income Tax Department carried out raids on Christy Group, which is the monopoly egg supplier for the Tamil Nadu government. Following this, the company’s bid for the next year’s egg supply has been rejected by the government.
