Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India]: Rajasthan Minister Madan Dilawar has accused the previous Ashok Gehlot-led government of being involved in a massive ₹1,705 crore scam, focusing on mid-day meal schemes and inflated student numbers at madrasas.
Speaking to media, Dilawar claimed, “One scam is about mid-day meals. This was a scam of crores of Rupees.” According to him, the mid-day meal scheme, which was intended to provide meals to students during the COVID-19 pandemic, was riddled with fraud and mismanagement.
Dilawar alleged that while students were supposed to receive mid-day meals during the pandemic, the actual distribution did not occur as claimed. “During Corona, the students were not provided mid-day meals; they had said that students should be given mid-day meals,” he stated.
He further explained that contracts were invited to manage the scheme, with Confed—a government agency—showing interest. However, Confed’s proposal was rejected, and the contract was instead awarded to the state government’s Consumers Cooperative Wholesale Stores Limited (Confed). This agency then sub-let the contract to another party, which in turn sub-contracted it further. According to Dilawar, this complex chain of sub-contracting led to inflated procurement costs.
Citing an example, he said that dal provided by NAFED at ₹50 per kilogram was purchased at a much higher price. He also mentioned the discovery of over 17 lakh food packets in Jaisalmer, which, as per documents, had supposedly been distributed to students. “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,” Dilawar remarked.
Dilawar further claimed that less than 60% of the material was actually taken from the food agency, despite records showing otherwise. “This is a ₹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,” he noted.
The minister also criticized the previous cancellation of an investigation into the matter, stating that a new investigation committee would be formed to conduct a thorough probe.
Dilawar did not stop at the mid-day meal scheme, alleging another scam involving madrasas. He claimed that the number of students enrolled at madrasas was artificially inflated from 1,30,000 to 2,08,000 on paper during the Congress regime, which he described as another scam worth crores of rupees.
“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,” Dilawar asserted.
Vowing to uncover the truth, Dilawar said, “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.”