Recently, residents of Himachal Pradesh came across this strange advertisement in various newspapers where the government invited quotations to buy…err…not some heavy machines or construction material but cloth for just two turbans.
In the ad, the government invited ‘tenders’ to purchase 14 metres of cloth at a humble rate of Rs 50 per metre. The turbans were to be given to drivers, the ad specified.
What confused, irked and infuriated the readers was why the government was spending thousands of rupees to buy something worth a mere Rs 700. It’s public money, couldn’t the government be more judicious?
As per an IANS report, the cost of the ad was some 15 times that of the cloth, around Rs 10,000.
Many took to Twitter to complain about the “misuse of public cash”
Turned out it was a faux pas, according to the government.
Ashwani Sharma, the General Administration Department’s Additional Secretary, told IANS that they sent out a letter to a cloth merchant asking for quotation, but “by mistake” it went to newspapers with other tender notices.