Irregularities in Telangana integrated school tenders: Harish Rao

Former minister Harish Rao alleges irregularities in Integrated School tenders, citing uniform excess rates and political favoritism in allocations.

Hyderabad: Senior BRS leader and former minister T Harish Rao on Friday, March 20, levelled serious allegations over the allocation of Integrated Residential School tenders in Telangana, claiming irregularities and political bias in the process.

Allegations of inflated tenders

Speaking during an informal interaction at the BRS Legislative Party office on Friday, March 20, Harish Rao said the tendering process lacked transparency and pointed to what he described as unusually high bid values.

He stated that tenders for 76 schools have been finalized so far, with all contracts quoted at excess rates ranging from 4.59 percent to 4.99 percent.

According to him, the uniformity in these figures raises suspicion about the fairness of the bidding process.

Questions over contracts and company links

Harish Rao alleged that in chief minister A Revanth Reddy’s constituency, Kodangal, a contract was awarded to KLSR Company at an excess rate of 4.95 percent.

He further claimed that a vehicle used by the chief minister is registered under the same company’s name, suggesting a possible conflict of interest. He also said that several constituencies represented by ministers witnessed similar tender allocations at comparable excess rates, and noted that nine of the projects were awarded to KLSR Company alone.

Claims of political discrimination

The BRS leader alleged that constituencies represented by BRS MLAs were denied Integrated Schools entirely. In contrast, he claimed that 10 MLAs who were elected on BRS tickets but later joined the Congress party were allotted these projects, indicating what he termed as “political favouritism” in project distribution.

Comparison with previous government

Drawing a comparison with the previous BRS government led by K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), Harish Rao said that development initiatives such as Mission Kakatiya and Mission Bhagiratha were implemented uniformly across all 119 constituencies without discrimination.

He asserted that the earlier administration ensured equal development regardless of political affiliation.

Issue to be raised in Assembly

Accusing Congress ministers of distributing tenders among themselves, Harish Rao said he would raise the issue during the upcoming Assembly budget sessions.