Annamalai alleges Rs 77 crore loss in govt scheme for pregnant women

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu BJP unit on Sunday alleged a loss of Rs 77 crore to the state exchequer in connection with provision of nutrition kits to pregnant women by involving a private firm.

State BJP president K Annamalai claimed the said firm provided a health mix and iron supplement, given as part of the nutrition kit to the pregnant women, at higher costs compared to state-run agencies.

Addressing reporters here, Annamalai said while a technical committee concerned had earlier decided to remove the health mix provided by the private firm and replace it with that of state-run Aavin, as part of cost-cutting measures, the decision was later ''reversed at the behest'' of certain individuals.

''This caused the government a loss of Rs 45 crore,'' as the cost of the health mix provided by the firm was higher than that of Aavin by about 60 per cent, he alleged.

Further, the iron supplement supplied by the private firm was costlier by about Rs 180 when compared to a state-run agency, and this resulted in a loss of Rs 32 crore and the government had incurred a total loss of Rs 77 crore from these two aspects, he claimed.

He wanted the government to award the contract for providing the health mix to the state-run milk cooperative Aavin.

Further, Annamalai alleged favouritism in granting approvals to a particular city-based construction firm.

He said his party would file complaints with the relevant state government authorities over the two issues.

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