Dharmana Krishna Das scotches rumours, offers to resign in Srikakulam

Srikakulam: Roads and Buildings Minister Dharmana Krishna Das on Saturday challenged the TDP leaders to prove the allegations that he was involved with sand mafia in the district.

Inaugurating two sand reaches at Kallepalli in Srikakulam rural mandal and Tunivada in Regidi mandal, Dharmana challenged that he would resign to his minister's post if the TDP leaders prove the allegations against him.

He said that Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy wants to streamline the sand supply system to generate more revenue to the government and to prevent sand mafia. The minister said sand scarcity would be resolved soon as 14 reaches were already started functioning in the district and added some sand reaches were exclusively allotted for Visakhapatnam to meet the requirements.

He said steps would be taken to open another 14 sand reaches across the district to meet requirements. Reacting on introduction of English medium in government schools, the minister said that English was essential for development and improvement of career opportunities and it does not mean that Telugu language would be neglected. Collector J Nivas, revenue, mines and geology departments' officials were present.