Uttam smells a rat in pattadar passbook printing

​Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Monday demanded a judicial enquiry into the alleged scam of over Rs 85 crore in the printing of pattadar passbooks for farmers.

In an informal chat with the media here at Gandhi Bhavan, the TPCC president said a pattadar pass book could be printed with a maximum cost of Rs 50 but the government had paid Rs 160 for each passbook. Recalling that the pattadar pass books proposed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had 26 features including water-proof and tamper proof. However, the present passbooks had no promised features, he said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said the pattadar passbook scam was of over Rs 85 crore. He said agencies who quoted lower prices were not allotted the tender. Instead, the company which quoted Rs 160 per passbook was given the contract. Further, he questioned the government for giving the contract to a private company instead of printing the passbooks in the Government Mint Compound which had four printers. He said the printing was sub-standard and the same had been pointed out by the Government Security Printing Press.

The TPCC chief further said the government was postponing the distribution of passbooks. These books were first planned to be distributed from January 26. Later, the date was postponed to March 11 and the President of India or Prime Minister were supposed to be invited for the event. However, now the event was being held on May 10, he said.