Staff reporter
Guwahati: The Government of Assam has issued detailed guidelines for the procurement and distribution of free school uniforms to all students from Class I to VIII of Government and Provincialised LP, UP, and Composite schools under Samagra Shiksha for the year 2025-26, to be used in the academic year 2026-27.
According to the guideline, each child will receive two pairs of good-quality uniforms within the Central Government’s cost ceiling of Rs 600 per student. The procurement process will be carried out by the School Management Committees (SMC) or School Management and Development Committees (SMDC) as per the Assam Public Procurement Act, 2017 and Assam Public Procurement Rules, 2020. The guideline further said that the supply of school uniform must be completed with December 31, 2025 without fail.
For uniform orders valued up to Rs 1 lakh, short quotation notices will be invited, while purchases between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 20 lakh will require an open tender, to be published on the State Public Procurement Portal.
For classes I-V, boy students will receive red stripe shirts with green pants, while girls will get red stripe shirts with green skirts. T-shirts in colours like maroon, purple, pink, charcoal grey, light blue, or orange will be worn with blue/black lowers on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
For classes VI-VIII, boys will get blue stripe shirts with blue pants, and girls will receive blue stripe kurtas with brown salwar pajamas and dark blue jackets. The same T-shirt and lower rule applies for specific days.
All uniforms will carry the Samagra Shiksha logo, and PMSHRI schools will also feature the PMSHRI emblem.
The State Mission Office will collect uniform samples for laboratory quality testing before payments are made. Schools must only release payments via bank transfer after receiving quality clearance. No cash transactions will be permitted. The vendors who were blacklisted due to supply of substandard quality of uniform during the year 2023-24 and 2024-25 shall not be considered to participate in the tendering process and also quotation process. The work order to procure the uniform will be issued within August 31.
The guidelines also mandate proper record-keeping, return of unspent funds within the financial year, and submission of Utilization Certificates by February 28, 2026. An action-taken report will also be required after the completion of distribution.
Officials have been instructed to ensure that uniform procurement does not disrupt normal school activities and that transparency is maintained at every level of the process.
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