Where Are Funds Meant For Free School Uniforms Disappearing, Chandrababu?  

Jammu, Srikakulam district: Dark clouds gathered this morning and there was no trace of sun anywhere. It seemed that the cyclone was beginning to have its effect. Despite this fact, people walked alongside me in large numbers.

Representatives of a Srikakulam-based non-profit organisation run by women met me. They described in detail the underlying corruption in APCO with respect to the free school uniforms scheme. "For years we have been stitching uniforms for school children. This government is out to wreck our lives. How do we survive?" they asked. They told me that about 100 women worked for the organisation. “Out of the Rs.40 which is paid to us per uniform, Rs.10 has to be given as bribe to the APCO chairman. If the remaining amount is not paid to us for over one year, how can we get by?" This was their question describing their plight.

Under the TDP, APCO has turned into a major den of corruption, they pointed out. Among the worst hit by corruption, is the free uniform scheme for school children, they remarked. Even as the academic year is coming to a close on the one hand, the uniforms have still not reached the schools, on the other, they pointed out. The few which have, are of inferior quality, they complained. With proper measurements, the uniforms are unfit to be worn by boys who discard them, they said. Girl students find it even more difficult to wear these uniforms of a smaller size.

"Who is this scheme meant for?", the members of the women’s group questioned, with righteous anger. They pointed a finger at the minister concerned, the APCO chairman and higher-ups in the government who subverted the entire purpose and diluted the free school uniforms scheme for their own selfish ends by looting it indiscriminately.

My father took up the Vamsadhara project to check the flooding of water and to prevent agricultural land from getting submerged. He had also sanctioned funds for this purpose. Narsannapeta farmers who met me complained that this government did not complete the pending works and as a result, thousands of acres of land was getting submerged. They expressed their anguish at the negligence of the TDP government. This was the case again with the works related to the head canals, they pointed out. “Because of the indifference of this government, thousands of acres get submerged at the time of floods,” they lamented.

On the other hand, when there was no water to irrigate the fields, agricultural land went dry, they pointed out. While the farmers continued to suffer year after year, the government remained completely insensitive to their plight. What can one say about such an apathetic government?

Arogyamitras complained that they were being harassed and discriminated against only because they were appointed during the tenure of my father, late Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy. Their job insecurity became a day to day matter of unending tension, only after this Telugu Desam government came to power, they remarked. They had to seek justice from the court of law when they were removed from service at one stroke, they said. The government paid no heed to the direction from the court that their salaries should be enhanced. The government is still trying to ease them out of service, they feared. “What is our fault? Is it that we were appointed in the Arogyasri scheme which won national and international acclaim,” they asked. What can be more inhuman than to torment these poor employees and to dilute the pioneering healthcare initiative launched by my father, only because he would be remembered and get credit for it! What is this sense of envy which drives people at the highest level in this government and who is it wreaking its vengeance upon? After all, who benefits from this universal healthcare scheme—lakhs of families across the state!

I have a question for the chief minister—you claim that students are being supplied free uniforms every year. Handloom societies which supplied cloth complain that their arrears have not been paid. Those who stitched these uniforms say that their dues have still not been paid. Students complain that even as the academic year is coming to a close, they have still not received their uniforms, and where they did, the ones supplied are of a very poor quality. What is happening to the funds sanctioned for this scheme of free uniforms? Whose pockets are being filled with these funds?

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