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Hyderabad: The leader of the opposition in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly yesterday sought to paint a damning picture of corruption in high places as he initiated a debate on a no-confidence motion against the four-year-old Congress government in the state.
N. Chandrababu Naidu levelled serious allegations of graft against Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and his cabinet colleagues as his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) dug in for a fight.
Naidu alleged that Reddy and other ministers were involved in misappropriation of billions under the "Jalayagnam" scheme - a massive irrigation programme launched by the government. Demanding a probe by a House committee, he claimed that ministers had become sub-contractors as they tried to cash in on contracts worth 400 billion rupees (Dh36.8 billion) for irrigation projects.
The motion moved by the TDP on Thursday is bound to be defeated what with the ruling Congress enjoying an overwhelming majority in the house. The TDP has 45 members while the Congress has 183 in the 294-member house.
The TDP, however, said the motion was meant to "highlight" corruption in the government.
The budget session of the assembly, which was to conclude on Friday, has been extended by three days to debate the motion and Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy has allotted 19 hours for the debate.
During his marathon speech, Naidu lashed out at the government for rampant corruption, nepotism, misuse of power and administrative inefficiency and said it had lost moral right to continue in office.
He accused Reddy, his cabinet colleagues and other ruling party leaders of "looting" public money, undermining democratic institutions and muzzling the voice of the opposition and media amid repeated interruptions from agitated treasury benchers.
Newspaper draws flak
"This chief minister has become high command of the high command," he remarked of Y.S.R. Reddy.
He alleged Reddy's family had seen its income grow from 2.7 million rupees in 2003-04 to 60 million rupees. He claimed Reddy had interests in as many as 13 companies.
He claimed that the sole aim of Sakshi, the new Telugu daily launched by the chief minister's son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, was to target the opposition. "This newspaper was given government advertisement from the first day in violation of rules and it is incurring a loss of 1.7 crore rupees every day," he said.
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