Andhra Pradesh: Government serves legal notices to TDP Spokesperson

Amaravati: The State government issued defamatory legal notices to the TDP Spokesperson Kommareddy Pattabhiram and others on Wednesday for his corruption allegations in the procurement of 104 and 108 Ambulances and their services. Speaking to The Hans India, the Public Prosecutor K Srinivas Reddy stated that if the people responsible for this criticism fail to respond in a proper manner, then the government will drag them into the courts and will be held liable for consequences.

Srinivas Reddy explained that the TDP Spokesperson made an allegation that without following the Reverse Tender procedure the government allocated the 108 and 104 services to Arabindo Consortium. The TDP leader further claimed that he has evidence on the misappropriation of public funds in these service to a tune of about Rs 307 Cr. Reacting on these allegations, the Government issued the notices by saying that it followed all the due procedures including calling for tenders, publishing them on e-auction platform, sending the project for judicial preview, conducting reverse tender and finally awarded to the lowest bidder and thereby saved the public money.

At the same time, the government explained that the costs of services were increased due to various reasons.

The previous service provider for 108 Ambulances was BVG group, which rendered these services at Rs 1.43 Lakh per vehicle per month. Whereas the Aurobindo Consortium entered the agreement to provide services at Rs 1.78 lakh per new vehicle per month and Rs 2.21 lakh per old vehicle per month. This increase in the prices of new vehicles was due to an increase in the basic salaries, enhanced service levels and an increase in fuel price and consideration for the next 7 years.