Jairam off the mark: M Venkaiah Naidu

Hyderabad: Terming Congress senior MP Jairam Ramesh’s allegations against his family members as baseless and politically motivated, NDA’s Vice-Presidential candidate and former Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said that the Congress was showing its bankruptcy of ideas by raking up such issues just days before the V-P elections. Clarifying on the allegations made by Mr Ramesh, Mr Venkaiah Naidu said that the TS government waived developmental charges and granted other concessions to Swarna Bharathi Trust headed by his daughter Deepa Venkat as it was a service-oriented NGO.

Earlier in the day, Mr Ramesh had also said that in July 2014, the TS police purchased Toyota Innova vehicles worth Rs 271 crore from Harsha Motors, owned by Mr Venkaiah Naidu’s son Harsha Vardhan and another firm Himanshu Motors owned by minister K.T. Rama Rao, without tenders being called. Mr Venkaiah Naidu said that similar concessions and waiver of charges were given to several other institutions by the TS government and it had given a clarification to this effect on July 23.

The V-P candidate emphasised that that he had never interfered in the activities of the firms run by his family members. “With regard to the TS police purchasing the Toyota Innova vehicles from Harsha Motors, the allegation is absolutely baseless. The TS government held consultations with Toyota Kirloskar for the purchase of the vehicles and even paid the money directly to the company. The transaction had nothing to do with Harsha Motors,” he said. Mr Venkaiah Naidu clarified that purchases were made in accordance at the Director General of Supplies specified rates.