Bangalore Oct 18: Infosys Board member and trustee of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, TV Mohandas Pai today refuted charges levelled against the foundation that it was selling foodgrains meant for the scheme for profit, dubbing it as a case of “personal vendetta”.
The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president, DK Shivakumar had alleged that the food grain supplied to International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) which runs the APF programme was being sold to rice vendors to make a profit.
The allegations were made after 4,500 bags of rice were seized from a marriage hall by food and civil supplies officials.
“This is a case of personal vendetta by a politician. He has made false claims against the foundation. All the food is fully accounted. It is stored in a godown pending use and letters had been given to the zilla parishad and proper records have been maintained. Nothing has been sold”, Pai said.
“We have been operating the scheme for the last 10 years. The government has done audits in the past. We spend much more than what is given on the programme”, he said adding that the programme feeds 10.80 lakh children in 5,700 schools in seven states everyday. He claimed that “many eminent citizens” of the country were associated with the programme, adding “A local politician to make such remarks is outrageous”.
“We as trustees are very angry and upset and we request well meaning citizens of India to stand up and condemn such vendetta by the politician”, he said.
PTI
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