Education Kits Deadline June 15, Says Revanth

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has directed that education kits containing all necessary material be delivered to students in welfare hostels and schools by June 15. He said this was important as students could focus on studies if they were provided with notebooks, educational material and uniforms in time. He said payments to suppliers of the kits would be cleared immediately.

Revanth Reddy pointed to irregularities took place when the departments handled the procurement and supply operations individually in the previous years. A centralised procurement policy has been introduced as the old system lacked uniformity, the Chief Minister. He noted that malpractices and misappropriation of funds came to light where each department independently managed the supply of materials, mainly uniforms, notebooks and trunk boxes.

He was speaking at a meeting to review arrangements made for the centralised procurement of educational material that are to be distributed to students in educational institutions run by the education department as well as the BC, minority, tribal, and SC welfare and ST development wings.

The CM warned that such irregularities would not be tolerated and stressed that the centralised procurement system should enhance accountability. The government's objective was to benefit students and not safeguard the interests of suppliers, Revanth Reddy said. He directed officials to ensure that all the material including notebooks, trunk boxes, plates, glasses, tracksuits, bed sheets, school bags, ID cards, and uniforms were of high quality. The officials were also ordered to pay special attention not only to quality but also to timely delivery.

The Chief Minister suggested appointing of a nodal officer at the mandal level to oversee the distribution of educational material to students and directed officials to take measures to ensure that supplies are distributed from the central point down to the field levels, specifically to schools and hostels in the villages.

All supply material should be photographed and video-recorded to document the distribution process. Officials should verify that every single student has received the complete set of required material and seek feedback from the students regarding the quality of notebooks, uniforms etc. The meeting took a decision to constitute a committee to ensure coordination among the SC, ST, BC, Minority, and Education departments.

Government adviser P. Sudarshan Reddy, MP Vem Narender Reddy, CM’s OSD Vemula Srinivasulu, special chief secretary, tribal welfare, Sabyasachi Ghosh, secretaries Yogita Rana (education), Shafiullah (minority welfare), Bala Mayadevi (BC welfare), SERP CEO Divya, higher education commissioner Sridevasena, school education director Dr Naveen Nicholas, TGBCWRIES secretary B. Saidulu and others were present.