Hyderabad: A cooperative federation that won the contract to supply food to Telangana’s residential welfare schools has threatened civil and criminal action against the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader who questioned how it got the work.
NACOF India Ltd. has served a legal notice on Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) general secretary and former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer RS Praveen Kumar, demanding that he retract allegations he made at a press conference on Thursday, September 17, according to Deccan Chronicle.
The federation, formally the National Federation of Farmers’ Procurement, Processing and Retailing Cooperatives of India Ltd., has given Praveen Kumar seven days to withdraw the allegations, delete related videos and social media posts, and publish a written apology on the same platforms. If he does not, NACOF said it will initiate civil and criminal proceedings seeking damages and injunctive relief.
What Praveen Kumar alleged
At the press conference, Praveen Kumar alleged a Rs 900 crore scam in the centralised procurement of food supplies for residential schools and hostels run for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and minorities, Telangana Today reported. He demanded a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe and challenged the government to prove that NACOF is a credible food supplier.
He said the tender had been finalised to hand procurement to a single agency, replacing the district-level system supervised by Collectors. He also claimed NACOF had earlier been blacklisted by Telangana Markfed and had a history of controversies, and urged parents and school principals to raise objections before supplies began.
NACOF’s response
The federation rejected the allegations by Praveen Kumar and the BRS as baseless and incorrect. It said Praveen Kumar had produced no evidence to back his claims.
NACOF said it took part in an open, competitive e-procurement tender notified on May 22, 2026, for provisions and cleaning materials for the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TGSWREIS). After evaluation of all bids, it was declared the lowest bidder (L1), received a Letter of Award on August 19, 2026, and furnished the required performance security, the notice states.
Since then, the federation said, it has been supplying provisions and cleaning materials to residential institutions and welfare hostels in all 33 districts of Telangana under its rate contract. It claimed every stage of the tender process was documented.
NACOF describes itself as a multi-state cooperative federation registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002, and regulated by the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies under the Union Ministry of Cooperation.
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