The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Naidu to expose ‘shady’ deals of Congress leaders

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Naidu to expose ‘shady’ deals of Congress leaders

Staff Reporter

Andhra lost Nano project due to corrupt ways of YSR, he alleges

SEZs being developed to the detriment of farmers, he says
‘CBI failed to prove its mettle in several cases’

Kakinada: TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu said he would expose various scandals indulged in by the ruling party leaders, along with documentary proof from November 1 during the party’s ongoing campaign against corruption. The party was committed to wage a relentless battle against projects which served no purpose other than filling coffers of Congress leaders and their henchmen. In the name of development, Chief Minister Y.S Rajasekhara Reddy and his followers were prepared to usurp even private properties, he alleged.

Addressing a press conference at the R&B guest-house here on Thursday, Mr. Naidu said the backing out of TATA Motors’ Nano car project from Andhra Pradesh was due to the corrupt ways of the Chief Minister and his coterie. They have shown to the company officials lands owned by Congress leaders in fictitious names and contractors to derive undue benefit from the project but having realised their intentions, TATA Motors’ changed its preference to Gujarat. The German car maker Volkswagen had also reneged from its commitment to set up its project at Visakhapatnam because of irregularities that have now become the hallmark of the Congress.

Mr. Naidu said the Chief Minister had now set his sight on coastal lands, which he wanted to take over for real estate business with the industrial corridor project as a facade.

But, the TDP would not allow such dubious plans to take shape as the livelihood of a huge number of farmers and poor people was at stake. He further alleged that the ONGC’s withdrawal from its proposed refinery project in Kakinada was due to favouritism shown to GMR Group by certain vested interests in the ruling dispensation.

The conduct of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in this matter was not beyond suspicion, Mr. Naidu alleged and vowed to expose all those involved in such shady deals.

Similarly, the Kakinada Special Economic Zone was sought to be developed to the detriment of farmers. Such anti-poor steps would be thwarted by the TDP which has always advocated transparency in acquiring land for industrial projects.

False claims

Mr. Naidu described the communal violence that rocked Bhainsa and Vatoli in Adilabad district as the heights of lawlessness. The Chief Minister and the Home Minister interpreted these incidents in contradictory ways so as to buttress their false claims.

In this regard, the TDP was prepared to prove the complicity of some anti-social elements on the basis of circumstantial evidence which the police have apparently failed to piece together properly.

He described CBI as the ‘crime branch of Congress party’ in response to the government’s offer to institute a CBI inquiry into the incidents that shattered peace in the two nondescript towns of Adilabad district. He questioned how could the CBI be trusted to establish the facts when it was clearly acting as the agency of the Congress. The CBI failed to prove its mettle in Paritala Ravi murder and many other cases in the State, hence it could not be expected to do anything better.

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