Mysuru:  The flagship ‘Shoe Bhagya’ scheme of the previous Congress Government that aimed at distributing a pair of shoes and two pairs of socks  to school children in the State, has run into controversy in the district, with Congress ZP Member Sri Krishna on Tuesday alleging large scale irregularities in the purchase of shoes for students of Government Schools in parts of H.D. Kote taluk.

After a heated debate over the issue at the ZP meeting, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), K. Jyothi eventually ordered a probe by a three-member Committee which includes the DDPI, the complainant and the President of School Development Monitoring Committee (SDMC).

Sri Krishna, an advocate representing Hampapura in H.D. Kote taluk in ZP, who had lodged a complaint in this regard with the CEO two months ago in July, had brought it to the notice of the officer that shoes distributed to the students of Government Higher and Lower Primary School at Hommaragalli coming under his constituency was of sub-standard quality.

Revealing how he found out the irregularities, he said that a pair of school shoes manufactured by the supplier company costs Rs.150, while the bills claimed the cost to be between Rs.260 and Rs.350.

Maintaining that the shoes neither conformed to ISI standards nor have batch numbers, which clearly indicates that they are of poor quality, Sri Krishna demanded a probe into the irregularities.

Leader of the Opposition D. Ravishankar, who buttressed the allegations of his fellow ZP Member Sri Krishna, too demanded a detailed probe into the irregularities. As the probe demand continued, ZP CEO K. Jyothi formed the three-member Committee and asked it to submit a report within three days.

ZP President Nayeema Sultana, Vice-President G. Nataraj and others were present.