Akshaya Patra – a compilation of unethical and fraudulent practices

1. Hiding details of payment being made by Government for supply of mid day meals

2. Other NGO contractors report payment from the government is adequate:

3. Inflated costs shown by Akshaya Patra just to raise donations

4. Considering Scale of operations and automation – Akshaya Patra should actually have the lowest and not highest costs in the industry

5. What about the extra/surplus grains? What is to the hundreds of tones of extra rice and grains? Are they being sold in the black market?

6. An unethical campaign that suppresses vital information and creates false hype

7. Madhu Pandit and his family members have suddenly become one of the biggest real estate project developers

8. Cost of the mid day meal supplied by the Akshaya Patra – calculated from the figures provided by the Akshaya Patra Foundaion

1. Hiding details of payment being made by Government for supply of mid day meals:

A comprehensive investigation of the website, promotional material, donation forms, videos,  web donation forms show that Akashaya Patra Foudation is attempting to hide from public view that it is a fully paid contractor engaged to supply mid day meals.  Just as the government gives out contracts for building of roads, bridges, schools and hospitals, this is also a contract for cooking and serving meals to the school children. Fully paid for by the government

Editor’s note: The Akshaya Patra was forced to acknowledge its  status as a paid contractor after a several  public protests, expressions of anger in the Karnataka state assembly debate and in the media. Akshaya Patra changed some portions of its website due to the threat of a government enquiry and action against them.(all links). .

2. Other NGO contractors report payment from the government is adequate:

By and large, most of the other NGO contractors , women self help groups etc report that payments made by the Government for the supply of the mid day meals are adequate. They conduct themselves as fully paid contractors, which is what they are. The government payments for the contractors supplying mid day meals are revised upwards from time to time and  are in  tune with the inflation and cost of living.  

Circulars issued by Central and state government and the Supreme Court show that the grants for the scheme is calculated in such a manner that it will not result in a financial burden to either the school, or the parents nor the contractor engaged to supply the mid day meals.

3. Inflated costs shown by Akshaya Patra just to raise donations:   

The Akshaya Patra trustees are guilty of overstating and inflating costs  in order to dupe and fleece corporate and individual donors. They are guilty of playing with the sentiments of the people through a planned, deliberate strategy of misrepresentation and false, unsubstantiated claims. While most of the other NGOs (of all sizes) report that their cost per meal is anywhere between Rs 2 to Rs 3, Akshaya Patra claims its costs are Rs 6 per meal (more than double that claimed by other NGOs!)

There appears to be a conspiracy among the trustees to make these exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims so that they can fleece innocent donors in India and abroad, on the strength of a media hype. Moreover, the Akshaya Patra trustees do not clearly acknowledge that they are receiving government payments for the mid day meals being supplied.

The illegal money that the Trustees could collect annually runs into several hundreds of millions.

Editor’s Note: One Major NGO contractor in Bangalore ( Adamya Chetana, Bangalore) carried out a large free medical checkup program and has provided accident relief insurance benefit of over 10,000 school children from the surplus funds generated from the mid-day-meal program during the years 2005 to 2007.

Adamnya Chetana's Experience [Reproduced from Adamya Chetana website]

(Adamya Chetana is one of major NGO in Karnataka):

You can check Adamya Chetana's website : http://www.adamyachetana.org/?page_id=27

"With the assistance of the Government, volunteers, donors, and the corporates, we have been able to reach thousands of school children day after day. As an effective partner in this challenging activity of the Government, we have made this programme exceptional."

Cost Effective:

"When we cook for thousands, every paisa counts. For Adamya Chetana the huge numbers have been converted to students' advantage. Costs have been brought down, thanks to economies of scale. Voluntary participation has further reduced the costs. Annapoorna (Scheme of Adamnya Chetana) has brought down the per meal cost to less than Rs. 2.00 (excluding rice / wheat). The children, therefore, receive a variety of good quality meals. "

Scientific Approach:

"Annapoorna has created a unique processes for preparing and delivering hot midday meals to thousands of children across hundreds of schools.

Maintaining high standards of safety and hygiene every single day.

Getting feedback about quality, quantity, taste and time of delivery from every school are distinctive features which have made Annapoorna a unique brand in the minds of the socially concerned.

This feedback forms the basis of continuous process and product improvement, which is the hallmark of Annapoorna.

We have a quality lab to assist in maintaining quality parameters which are critical"

4. Considering Scale of operations and automation – Akshaya Patra should actually have the lowest and not highest costs in the industry:

NGOs which are much smaller than the Akshaya Patra report that with their scale of operations with semi automated cooking machinery, with old and antiquated systems, producing a meal costs them Rs 2 to Rs 3.

What about the Akshaya Patra? The Trustees have to answer questions regarding their costs satisfactorily. How is it when they the  largest scale of operations and in light of their claim that they have the most cost efficient operation, fully automated kitchens (all of which have been sponsored by the IT majors, corporate and banks etc), is it not strange that they report the highest cost of operations?

5. What about the extra/surplus grains? What is to the hundreds of tones of extra rice and grains? Are they being sold in the black market?

Many NGOs report that grains supplied by the government to the contractors under the mid day meal scheme are excess. Almost 20 percent of the grains are unutilized as  all  children do not consume the quantity of food  stipulated under the scheme.

The Akshaya Patra (which is feeding about 9,00,000 children per day, will be saving about 15 to 20 tonnes of grains each day (two lorry loads of grains each day). About 400 tonnes of grains each month!  The Akshaya Patra does not report any savings in grains. So the question is what is happening to these grains? This  is one of the greatest mysteries.

Many of the NGOs surrender the excess grains and take only whatever they actually consume.

Recently several NGO contractors have been caught while they were trying to divert the grains to the black market and these happenings have been reported in the media.

Some sample stories have been reported here:

Mid-day meal scandal: 3 teachers arrested

Agencies Posted: Oct 24, 2008 at 1418 hrs IST

Related Articles

Police have arrested three persons including two teachers for allegedly selling food items meant for mid-day meal to shopkeepers in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said on Friday.

Acting on a tip off, police on Thursday night raided a shop in Kishtwar town and caught two government school teachers – Master Riyaz Ahmed and Imtiyaz – when they were trying to sell ration of mid-day meals, they said.

A case has also been registered against them, sources said, adding 800 kgs of rice and other food items meant for the mid-day meals were also recovered from their possession.

 

Uttar Pradesh teachers to face action for mid-day meal anomalies

Indo Asian News Service

Last Updated: January 10, 2009 03:10:04
Lucknow, Jan 10 (IANS) Teachers and principals of over 100 government-run primary schools in Uttar Pradesh's Etawah district will face action for irregularities in the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme, an official said Saturday.

'These teachers are under scanner for not providing regular lunch to their students under the MDscheme,' official in-charge of basic education in Etawah Naresh Verma told IANS on phone.

He said an inquiry has been initiated against the teachers, who would either be suspended or sacked depending upon their involvement in the anomalies.

The anomalies in the MDM scheme came to the fore during the on-going inspections in the district schools by basic education authorities.

'We found that schools in Sarsainawar village of Etawah, about 250 km from here, were not providing lunch to their students for the last three months,' Verma said.

Schools in Takha village of the district were not following the prescribed diet plan under the MDM. The scheme states that every child should be provided with minimum 300 calories of energy and 8-12 grams of protein for a minimum period of 200 days, Verma pointed out.

About 150,000 schools and over 18.6 million students are covered under the MDM scheme in Uttar Pradesh. Under the scheme, lunch is provided to students till Class 8.

National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, also known as Mid-Day Meal Programme, was launched by the central government Aug 15, 1995. Its objective is to boost universalisation of primary education and improve nutritional status of children.

Editors note: It is a grave offence to either divert the grains meant for mid day meal to any other purpose or to sell the grains in the black market. The NGO has to give a utilization report before it draws the next consignment of grains. The excess grains that Akshaya Patra is potentially saving at  today’s market pricing could be worth Rs Rs 7 lakh per day. 

The big question is : what is happening to the grains? Why is the Akshaya Patra not reporting any savings in grains allotted for the program?

Is this the real meaning of the word Akshaya Patra – a vessel with unlimited capacity to hold or hoard?

6. An unethical campaign that suppresses vital information and creates false hype :

The media campaign of the Akshaya Patra suppresses information about the payments being made by the government and misleads the public by not stating clearly that Akshaya Patra is a mid day meal supply contractor like many others. The campaign deliberately and with an intention to deceive, creates an impression that the mid day meal program is a great service to the cause of education and is a charitable activity being carried out by the trust through its own efforts. This is a highly objectionable and unethical practice being resorted to just to evoke the sympathy of the prospective donors. It is  strange to note that none of the other NGO contractors engaged in the mid day meal program are resorting to such aggressive corporate style media campaign.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation has infact hijacked the entire scheme and does not acknowledge the role, contribution and financial support of the government clearly.

The question being asked is that can a government contractor who has obtained contracts for building roads, bridges and schools go out and claim that he is building and developing these projects? Can he then go out and unleash a media campaign to raise funds from innocent, gullible public claiming that he is building India by making roads, schools and so on?

7. Madhu Pandit and his family members have suddenly become one of the biggest real estate project developers:

Starting off as a sadhus, now the two co-brothers are one of the biggest real estate project developers of Bangalore. They have now started real estate projects in other places as well. A partial list of the real estate projects they have undertaken is given here:

  1. A massive housing project involving building of 650 flats on Kanakapura Road

  2. A huge mega complex comprising of a five star hotel, Inteernational Convention center, shopping malls, office complex coming being developed on Kanakapura Road on a 50 acre campus

  3. Another housing project comprising of over 1100 flats proposed at the KR Road

  4. A luxury Township development project coming up near the Devenahalli International Airport

  5. Township projects in Jaipur, Vrindavan, Mathura

  6. Health Resort coming up at Trivandrum near the Kovalam beach

  7. and so on

Neither Madhu Pandit nor his co-brother are able to satisfactorily explain where the money for these projects is coming from. What is the real secret behind the new found prosperity of the two co-brothers and their families?

8. Making a complex maze of numerous trusts, societies and businesses to hide the real ownership and camouflage the  business interests of the Madhu Pandit family :

Madhu Pandit das, its has set up a smokescreen around the Hare Krsna Hill and behind the smokescreen he has created a complex maze of trusts, societies and other fictitious organistaions.

This is completely contradictory to the principles of collective management, transparency and probity through which the ISKCON Institution and all its allied organization conduct themselves.

There are several unanswered questions and suspicions regarding the real intention of the two co brothers who together now control a vast business empire worth over a 1000 crores of rupees.

The mystery that shrouds the working of the Madhu Pandit family is giving raise to allegations of fraud, nepotism, unethical conduct. However keeping in mind, the fraud the two co-brothers have played on ISKCON, it is only natural that there could be devious intentions.
 
8. Cost of the mid day meal supplied by the Akshaya Patra – calculated from the figures provided by the Akshaya Patra Foundaion:

The following is an analysis of the cost and income data provided by Madhu Pandit das in response to the various allegations made against Akshaya Patra.

The following  is an extract from a report provided by Madhu Pandit das to the Governement of Karnataka after the April 13th debate in the Karnataka Assembly.