VIJAYAWADA: The All India Handloom Rights Forum (AIHRF) sought Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to order a vigilance inquiry into the alleged corruption in Andhra Pradesh State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society (APCO). AIHRF president, Bandaru Jwalanarasimham, on Monday said AIHRF wrote a letter to the Chief Minister seeking his help to weavers by providing government welfare schemes directly by restraining corruption in APCO.
Jwalanarasimham, in the letter, informed the Chief Minister that retired IAS officer Ajay Kallam on several occasions had mentioned about the corruption and illegalities prevailing for the past 10 years in APCO. He recalled that last year the CID found Rs 2 crore cash, silver and gold ornaments and valuable documents during checks in the house of former APCO chairman in Kadapa district which reflected huge corruption and illegalities in the society.
Jwalanarasimham said that auditing was not held in APCO for the past seven years. He said the price of products were high in APCO’s 126 outlets across the state compared to private shops which caused a decrease in sales in APCO. He demanded that Jagan Mohan Reddy conduct an audit in APCO, review the prices to initiate measures to revamp APCO and further to order vigilance inquiry into corruption.
Meanwhile, the AP Government Nurses Association (APGNA) sought the state government to provide an insurance scheme to contract and outsourcing nurses to help their families. APGNA state president G. Manjula Devi and general secretary R. Siva Kumari lamented that nurses were the worst sufferers due to the pandemic crisis as many nurses died of Covid-19 while performing duties in government hospitals. They said contract and outsourcing nurses were rendering services similar to regular nurses, but they were barred from health protection and other benefits.
The two APGNA leaders lauded Jagan Mohan Reddy for giving top priority to filling vacant posts in the medical and health department in the job calendar. They requested the Chief Minister to provide a government insurance scheme and pay revision to contract and outsourcing nurses working in state hospitals.
