Govt issues directives to ensure quality

LUCKNOW: Not willing to take any chances with the quality of shoes to be distributed to government– run primary and upper primary students, the Yogi Adityanath government has issued stern directives to all district magistrates to ensure quality of shoes before distributing them to students.

The government has invited tenders of around ₹152 crore for distributing shoes free of cost to around 1.58 crore primary students in government schools across the state.

Satish Dwivedi, basic education minister in the state government, has directed all district magistrates and basic shiksha adhikaris (BSA) to ensure quality of shoes before distributing them to students.

In the recently issued GO (government order), the government has directed BSAs and district magistrates to check quality of shoes before making payment to contractors who are supplying shoes. The government has also instructed them to stop payments if the quality of shoes are found bad.

It may be pointed out that the state government drew flak last year when shoes distributed by it to primary students turned out to be of poor quality. Within a few

THE GOVERNMENT HAS INVITED TENDERS OF AROUND ₹152 CR FOR DISTRIBUTING FREE SHOES TO AROUND 1.58 CR PRIMARY STUDENTS

days after receiving shoes last year, students were seen wearing worn out shoes.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court also took suo moto note of the issue and sought explanation from the Basic Education department on the issue. In April last, the state basic education department had admitted that out of 1,72,113 pair of shoes that were distributed in Lucknow to the children in government run primary and upper primary schools, approximately 15,000 shoes found to be damaged.