The TDP has alleged corruption to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore in the “arbitrary allotment” of sand mining tender to a single private company in a “very non-transparent and questionable manner”. The Andhra Pradesh government has changed its sand mining policy for the third time in 20 months and it has become a major focal point for the people in the state, the party has alleged.
TDP national spokesman Kommareddy Pattabhi expressed concern that the ruling YCP leaders have hatched a master plan to loot over Rs 10,000 crore in the arbitrary allotment of the sand mining tender to the private company in a questionable manner.
Pattabhi said that Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy and Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy were the main brains behind this “massive deal to loot Andhra Pradesh’s sand resources on a wholesale scale. Two suitcase companies of Jagan Reddy were brought in to make sure that the sand tender would be allotted to Jayaprakash Power Ventures in a planner manner, Pattabhi alleged.
Addressing a press conference after releasing a pamphlet here, the TDP leader asked why the Jagan Reddy government did not send the tender allotment to JP Power Venture for judicial review prior to its approval. At every level, there was no transparency in the tender process. The KNR Construction and the Trident Chemphar were the two companies that were made to file their tenders. Trident was related to chemicals and it had no prior experience in sand handling. Both the companies had such track record that they would be disqualified at the level of technical scrutiny. Pattabhi said that on November 18, 2019, the YCP released an advertisement saying that 2 lakh tonnes of sand would be supplied to the people every day. Going by this, over 6 crore tonnes of sand would be mined and supplied each year, excluding unseasonal months. But the latest information given by the government indicated mining of only 4 crore tonnes. This was enough to say how the YCP top coterie had masterminded a massive corruption deal to sell over 2 crore tonnes in the black market. A grand plan was set in motion to loot over Rs 3,000 crore per year which would come to about Rs 10,000 crore in the remaining three years of the Jagan regime, he alleged.
The TDP leader said that in the past two years, YCP leaders in their respective Assembly segments plundered all the sand resources and gave accounts to Jagan Reddy›s Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy every now and then. They had looted the state’s wealth, he alleged. As this proved difficult to manage at the level of Tadepalli palace, Jagan Reddy handed over all sand resources in the state to a single company so that it would be easier to loot the sand in a wholesale manner.