Hyderabad: A news report alleging that the Telangana government showed favouritism to vehicle dealerships owned by the sons of Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in the purchase of Toyota Innova vehicles and Honda motor bikes for the police department last year was strongly denied by the TS government.
An English news channel reported on Saturday that 3,883 Innovas and 2,000 motor bikes worth Rs 271 crore were bought in TS without floating any tenders to benefit the high-profile dealers.
IT minister K.T.Rama Rao denied owning any vehicle dealership and termed the report as “baseless and nonsense”.
Telangana’s director-general of police Anurag Sharma said, “The government had sanctioned Rs 206 crore to purchase patrolling vehicles which include HMVs, LMVs, MMVs and motor cycles. All the vehicles which were under DG&D Rate Contract, were directly purchased from the manufacturers or its authorised dealers under DG&D Rate Contract fixed by the Government of India by following codal formalities. The vehicles which are not under DGS & D rate contract were procured through open tender system, on e-procurement platform. The report that no tenders were called for is absolutely false.”
Sanjay Kumar Jain, IG, provisioning and logistics, said, “The report that 3,883 Innovas were bought is totally false. Only 696 Toyotas were purchased and the rest were purchased from Tata, Mahindra etc. Moreover, we placed orders with manufacturers through e-procurement system.”
The police department is planning to file a defamation suit against the channel for telecasting a false report without verifying the facts.
