Raje laddoos leave a bitter taste

Eversince she came to power, Raje has been distributing gift packets among the VIPs every festival. Her typical gift hamper, sent out with a greeting card bearing Raje’s signature, includes an assortment of sweets, dry fruits and crackers or gulal and thandai, depending on the festival. Jaipur-based event management company, Crayons, was given the contract for purchasing, packaging and dispatching the contents handpicked by the CM and her team.

This year, too, Crayons was asked to carry out the CM’s PR exercise. In accordance with the order, the agency procured the contents and started packing them. But a few days ago, the agency was asked to stop midway. ‘‘We were told that the Department of Public Relations (DIPR) would float a tender for the process,’’ a top official of the agency told The Indian Express.

The DIPR went ahead and issued a tender notice, only to spike it at the last moment. The task was finally outsourced to a Delhi-based agency, Appeal Advertising, which is already raising several eyebrows in the state because of its involvement in several high-profile campaigns of the Rajasthan government.

Crayons officials believe they were shunted out after their bosses reminded the government at a meeting that they had not been paid for the sweets distributed on Diwali. A bill of nearly Rs 15 lakh is pending with the government on account of the Diwali gift.

‘‘The bill was sent to them in the last week of November. But it has still not been cleared. We had just politely reminded the government of this at a meeting,’’ officials of the agency said, adding the CM was not to be blamed for this.

The agency is now ruing the day it took up the order for Holi. ‘‘We made all the purchases and spent Rs 7 lakh. This money will now go down the drain.’’ Though it has burnt a hole in its packet, the agency has said no to the government’s request for giving the material purchased by it to the new supplier, saying what’s the guarantee it would be paid for it.

When contacted, Director of the DIPR, Ajay Singh Chittora, refused to divulge details of the CM’s gift plans for this Holi. ‘‘I do not remember the details. I will have to look up the records,’’ he said.

When asked why the supplier had been changed, Chittora said he was not in a position to comment on it.