YSRC questions Lokesh on skill development scam

Vijayawada: AP State Planning Board vice chairman and YSRC MLA Malladi Vishnu asked Telugu Desam general secretary Nara Lokesh to stop his Yuvagalam padayatra and answer youth about the scam in AP Skill Development Corporation during the TDP rule in which ₹370 crore of public money had been swindled.

Vishnu raised the scam while participating in the Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam mass contact programme in Vijayawada on Friday. He pointed out that even the CAG had confirmed the massive fraud in the Skill Development Corporation.

The Planning Board vice chairman alleged that projects to train youth in several skills had been formulated at an inflated cost of ₹3,300 crore and ₹370 crore had been swindled in the process. Lokesh, as the IT minister, had been also handling the skill development portfolio at the time.

Vishnu maintained that having cheated the youth in the scam, the TD general secretary has no right to take out the Yuvagalam yatra and in the process fool the youth.

The YSRC MLA said Telugu Desam is answerable for several scandals during its regime, including insider trading in Amaravati capital lands, ESI scam and corruption in Tidco houses.

Others who participated in the Gadapa Gadapaku programme in New Rajarajeswaripeta included Vijayawada city deputy mayor Avuthu Sree Sailaja Reddy and local corporator Isarapu Devi Rajaramesh.