Naidu robbed public money in CRDA, YSRC committed to welfare: CM Jagan

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Friday that the IT department is investigating how TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and his associates were involved in the APCRDA’s scam vis-à-vis the construction of temporary structures for the new capital during his term as CM between 2014 and 2019.

“My government is committed to serve the public in all possible ways without looting public money,” the Chief Minister asserted.

He was corroborating the sequence of events explained by IT minister G. Amarnath in the state Assembly on how Chandrababu made holes in the exchequer by forcing the agents of contractors to pay commissions.

“Chandrababu stooped to such lows that he had forced L&T and Shapoorji Pallonji, the contractors for construction of the Secretariat, High Court, the Assembly and the TIDCO houses to pay commissions for awarding the contracts. Commissions of ' 156 crore were rerouted through shady companies to his pockets,” the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister said the companies that got the bogus sub- contract work orders were run by Naidu’s close associates. “Apart from Chandrababu, his secretary Srinivas and Manoj Vasudev Pardasanny, who played a role in transferring the commissions, are facing investigation from the central agencies,” he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy said Chandrababu Naidu has already received IT notices.

The Chief Minister quoted the IT appraisal report, prepared after the IT raids on Srinivas and Manoj, to say that crores of rupees were siphoned off to Chandrababu through these associates. “While the TD president pocketed public money and misused it for buying public representatives in elections and for other selfish political gains, the YSRC government has been working hard to improve the lives of the poor by implementing welfare schemes and transferring money directly into their accounts through DBT,” Jagan Mohan Reddy said.