Hyderabad: Kaleshwaram, Dummugudem tenders reek of corruption, alleges Congress

Hyderabad: TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is indulging in massive corruption by manipulating tenders of Kaleshwaram Project and Dummugudem project worth over Rs 24,000 crore.

During a video conference with senior party leaders, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that while the entire world was busy fighting the coronavirus, Chandrasekhar Rao and his close relatives were busy taking 8 per cent commission as kickbacks from contractors of Kaleshwaram projects. "This massive corruption in irrigation projects is happening when there is a total lockdown and no one could come out. The tender was called and closed during the lockdown period. Hence, there was no serious global bidding. As per our information, the cost estimates have been inflated by 30-40 per cent at the cost of public exchequer and huge 8 per cent commission arrangements were entered to between the contractors and the powers that be," he alleged.

Uttam alleged that the Chief Minister, who also holds the Irrigation portfolio, and his relatives benefitted from the manipulations in the tender process. "We demand that these tenders be cancelled and fresh tenders be called at the global scale," he demanded.

Stating that May 12 was the last date for submitting bids for Dummugudem project, Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that there was a meeting at the behest of the Chief Minister with regard to Rs 3,000 crore tender and it has been manipulated.