Information Technology and Industries Minister K. T. Rama Rao has lashed out at senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh for the latter’s comments on alleged irregularities in purchase of vehicles for the State police department claiming that the senior leader’s remarks exposed his “intellectual bankruptcy”.
Mr. Rama Rao said that the Congress leaders, rejected by the people at the State and Central levels, were stooping down to play “cheap politics” to remain in the public glare.
‘Show proof’
“The Congress is trying to create issues out of non-issues as the party is afraid of survival. Mr. Jairam Ramesh should show the proof of irregularities or tender unconditional apologies for his remarks,” he said.
The Minister launched a scathing attack on Mr. Ramesh for claiming that he (Mr. Rama Rao) resorted to irregularities in purchase of vehicles along with NDA’s vice-president nominee M. Venkaiah Naidu’s son. He strongly refuted the charge that orders were placed through a firm owned by him.
“A tractors stock yard I owned in the past has been closed for the last seven years. I am prepared to transfer the ownership of the firm to Mr. Jairam Ramesh if he can prove that the firm has indulged in any irregularities,” he said.
He asserted that orders for the vehicles were placed through the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposal (DGS&D), a Central government organisation. Price of the vehicles was fixed in line with the recommendations made by the DGS&D and the order was placed directly to the companies manufacturing the vehicles, not individual dealers. “Orders were placed for SUVs and four-wheelers manufactured by several companies, not restricted to a single brand alone,” he said.
Tax exemptions
Mr. Rama Rao justified exemption of Swarna Bharat Trust, an NGO operated by Mr. Venkaiah Naidu’s family, claiming that similar exemptions were provided to several not for profit organisations and charitable trusts by the government. Prominent among those who were given exemptions included the Secretariat Employees Housing Society, Paniniya Educational Trust and Basava Tarakam Indo-American Cancer hospital and research institute. The Indo-American cancer institute received the highest exemption of Rs. 5.7 crore.
