Cong alleges printing scam in school board

The Ahmedabad Municipal School Board's payment of Rs2.62 per visiting card and Rs4.10 per letter pad sheet has raised many an eyebrow at the state Congress. The opposition party has termed the payment exorbitant and alleged corruption. Moreover, the Congress also registered a protest against seven other items on the agenda at the school board meeting on Friday.

The school board approved the payment of Rs17,062 to a contractor towards payment of 6,500 visiting cards (Rs2.62 per card) for 13 members of board including its chairman and vice-chairman. In addition, the board approved the payment of Rs26,680 towards printing of 6,500 letter pads (Rs4.10 per pad). It should be noted that both the contracts were given to the same contractor. According to Chaudhary, both these items should cost around 40 paise per visiting card and Re1 per pad respectively, on average.

Ramesh Chaudhary, the only Congress member in the 14-member education body of the city, registered his protest of the issue, alleging corruption. The school board awarded the contract by inviting quotations, not tenders, and then paid an exorbitant price for it, alleged Chaudhary.

He also claimed that all three proposals were submitted by the same contractor under different names, of which the ruling party had selected the proposal offering lowest rates, Chaudhary added.

Congress alleged the 'saffronisation' of schools by subscribing to magazines published by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) sister organisation. The school board has subscribed to four such magazines for primary schools - Achala, Pragatishil Shikshan, Gharshala and Sadhana.

Chaudhary also alleged that the BJP-led board had paid the contractors at the time of accepting the proposals, for work which is yet to be completed. In addition, even though AMC has a team of engineers, the school board roped in a private structural engineer for to formulate a structural stability report. On the other hand, the chairman of civic school board, Jagdish Bhavsar discarded all allegations from the opposition.

"We have passed all the proposals on the agenda and there is no corruption in any issue," said Bhavsar.