BJP demands CBI probe into multi-crore irregularities in civil supplies department

Hyderabad: BJP Legislature Party leader Aleti Maheshwar Reddy demanded a probe by a sitting judge or the CBI into alleged large-scale corruption in the civil supplies department.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Maheshwar Reddy said civil supplies minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy had failed to respond to issues he had raised on irregularities in paddy and rice procurement. He wondered why contractors were given four months additional time as against the time set by FCI.

He wanted to know why the government had not taken action against contractors who had not lifted paddy within the stipulated 90 days and the four companies who had failed to procure 35 lakh metric tonnes of paddy before May 15. He, however, welcomed the decision to go ahead with milling of the existing paddy stock instead of procuring rice at `5,700 by raising tenders.

He charged that the minister had not made a single field visit to inspect paddy procurement at IKP centres even after farmers groups and other NGOs had raised voice over collection of additional four to five kg of paddy on a 40 kg bag in the name of moisture and other reasons.

In a separate press conference, BJP spokesperson Rani Rudrama demanded a probe into the `58,000 crore debt and `11,000 crore loss suffered by the civil supplies department, when it was acting as a FCI agent, and there was no need to spend on any infrastructure. Calling it a bigger scam than Kaleshwaram, Rudrama pointed out that the state is paying `290 crore public money as interest every month for the department’s debt.

Rudrama asked why Uttam Kumar Reddy was shielding former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and not probing his role in causing such a massive loss.