Vijayawada: Sanitation deal sparks big row

Vijayawada: The endowments department has landed in a controversy by awarding tenders to oversee housekeeping and sanitation tenders at temples to a hospitality major by violating rules. A Chennai industrialist, who has the housekeeping contracts of temples like Srirangam, Madurai Meenakshi and Tiruttani, is now eying AP temples. After the formation of TS, he linked up with officials of the endowments department. His involvement in the medical infrastructure scam in TN forced the CBI to launch an inquiry against an IAS man.

Arappor Iyakkam, a anti-corruption NGO of TN, recently lodged a complaint with the CBI that bureaucrats had misused powers to award a tender of Rs 520 crore to the hospitality company. It alleged that the tender floated by the N Medical Supplies Corporation was intended to outsource housekeeping and security services for 37 government hospitals and 20 medical colleges under the purview of the Directorate of Medical Education. The same company is reportedly trying to get the contract in AP, through the AP Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation.

The firm has managed to get the tenders of Srisailam Bharamaramba Mallikarjuna Swamy Devasthanam; Durga Malleswara Swamy Devasthanam at Vijayawada; Kanipaka Ganapathi Devasthanam, Dwaraka Tirumala; Simhachalam Sree Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Devasthanam; Mah-anandi Devasthanam, and Sree Kalahasthi Devasthanam.

Huge payments to contractor:

Huge payments made to a housekeeping contractor over the past two years has come to light following written objections by the Mahanandi temple executive officer and a protest by Kanipakam temple committee members last year. The contractor, who claims to be close to a former chief secretary of Tamil Nadu, is a native of Chittoor district and had displayed his “generosity” by donating Rs 10 lakh after Cyclone Hudhud hit AP two years ago.

Housekeeping tenders were awarded to him by six famous temples through separate tenders, the details of which are available only with the office of the endowments commissioner. Two IAS officers of the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat had reportedly extended their support to this contractor. The scam came to light when Mahanandi temple executive officer B. Sankara Varaprasad refused to pay a huge amount, which was more than the revenue generated by the temple, towards housekeeping charges.