Chennai: The Madras high court has ordered notice on a petition which alleged irregularities in the procurement of eggs for the noon-meal scheme.
The petitioner M. Jayakumar, proprietor of JK Egg Mart Limited, Vaniyambadi, submitted that he has been engaged in supplying eggs to the government on contract basis for noon meal scheme. He had been supplying eggs for the past two decades.
Normally, the price of eggs was fixed by National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) after considering all the relevant factors, including transport charges.
Originally, eggs were supplied to the government through district wise tender floated by the government. Selected contractor supplied the eggs to the centres concerned at the district level itself.
In April 2014, a tender notification was issued for supplying eggs in the state-level instead of calling for district wise tenders. Because of this, the government would face a huge loss and eggs would not be supplied in time. The government will end up procuring at an extra price due to irregularities. Children will face serious hardship.
The government accorded contract to three Namakkal based companies for procuring eggs at a price of Rs 4.51, which is more than the price fixed by NECC.
In July 2015, another tender notification was issued for procuring eggs and contract awarded to them for purchasing the eggs at a price of Rs 4.35, which is again more than the price fixed by NECC.
Last year, the government incurred a loss of Rs 12 crore in the procurement of eggs. The government suffered a loss of Rs 11.79 crore in September 2015 and Rs 10.68 crore in October 2015. He sent representations to the authorities in October 2015. As there was no action, he filed the present petition.
Justice M.M. Sundresh ordered notice to the authorities for filing counter in two weeks.
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