Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) General Secretary and former IPS officer RS Praveen Kumar has leveled explosive allegations against the Telangana state government, claiming a massive ₹2,041 crore scam in the procurement of commodities and essential supplies for government-run residential schools. Addressing a press conference at Telangana Bhavan, Kumar openly challenged Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) Welfare Minister Adluri Laxman to an open debate at the Somajiguda Press Club on July 2 to present full evidentiary backing for his corruption claims. The political escalation highlights a deepening confrontation over state procurement transparency and regional contractor equity.
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Allegations of Tailored Tenders and Cartel Infiltration
The core of the procurement scandal revolves around systemic structural changes implemented under the administration of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy. Kumar, who previously served as the secretary of the Telangana Residential Educational Institutions Society for nine years, asserted that the government intentionally dismantled decentralized school tenders to implement highly centralized, high-value contracts. By aggressively inflating turnover prerequisites and demanding steep financial solvency certificates, the state reportedly wiped out opportunities for nearly 10,000 small and medium-scale local contractors from Telangana, shifting multi-crore supply chains exclusively to elite corporate cartels from other states.
Kumar explicitly highlighted critical supply breaches across multiple essential student logistics pipelines, strongly questioning why the Telangana State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society (TSCO)—an institution explicitly legally bound to protect local weavers—bypassed internal channels to award a major fabric supply contract to a private out-of-state entity. He also flagged a complete mismatch in institutional mandates, questioning why the Telangana Leather Industries Eco-Development Corporation (LIDCAP) was suddenly tasked with supplying school stationery, ties, belts, and student identity badges. These regulatory shifts have resulted in severe logistical failures; investigators and local parents noted that nearly a month after the academic year commenced, thousands of students have yet to receive textbooks, notebooks, school bags, towels, and trunk boxes, whereas under previous guidelines, these materials were seamlessly pre-arranged between January and February.
Drug Peddling Links and Secret Administrative Meetings
The controversy took a highly alarming turn when Kumar raised severe public safety concerns regarding the backgrounds of specific government-selected contractors. He alleged that Niranjan Jain, a prominent merchant who successfully secured the official state contract to supply thousands of student trunk boxes, has a documented history of illicit narcotic transactions. Citing prior public briefs by Hyderabad City Police Commissioner C.V. Anand, Kumar noted that Jain had reportedly approached international drug cartels nearly 30 times. He demanded to know how the state could guarantee that illegal narcotics would not filter directly into school dormitories concealed inside student luggage trunks.
The BRS General Secretary further accused senior political figures and close aides to the Chief Minister of executing backroom deals inside high-end star hotels. He claimed that key welfare ministers were kept entirely in the dark regarding these financial meetings. According to his statements, draft government orders were processed immediately following these hotel assemblies and signed exclusively by the Chief Minister without circulating copies among departmental heads. Kumar demanded a comprehensive, multi-agency investigation led by a retired judge and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to map the broader nexus between corporate beneficiaries and government actors.
State Government Denials and Security Downgrades
In response to the growing political storm, SC and ST Welfare Minister Adluri Laxman aggressively dismissed the corruption allegations as completely baseless fabrication. The minister countered that the entire state-wide procurement apparatus floated tenders worth only ₹674 crore, rendering the opposition’s multi-thousand-crore scam claims mathematically impossible. Government spokespersons maintained that centralized procurement was introduced specifically to eliminate local leakages and enforce strict, uniform quality control standards across all public hostels.
The administrative row escalated further when the state government abruptly scaled back Kumar’s personal security detail and withdrew his state-allocated bulletproof transport vehicle. Kumar heavily slammed the decision, labeling it a direct act of political vendetta designed to silence a prominent whistleblowing voice. He emphasized that despite three separate historic attempts on his life during his 26-year police career, no prior administration had compromised his security layout. BRS Working President K.T. Rama Rao strongly condemned the move, demanding immediate restitution of the security grid and holding the Chief Minister directly liable for Kumar’s physical safety.
