Mangalagiri: Stage set for 10,000 cr loot in sand mining

Mangalagiri: TDP national spokesman Kommareddy Pattabhi on Tuesday expressed concern that the ruling YSRCP leaders hatched a master plan to loot over 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.

Pattabhi said that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, co-accused number 4 Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy and minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy were the main brains behind this massive deal to loot the AP sand resources on wholesale scale. Two suitcase companies of Jagan Mohan Reddy were brought in to make sure that the sand tender is be allotted to Jaiprakash Power Ventures in a planner manner.

Addressing a press conference after releasing a pamphlet at the party headquarters here, the TDP leader asked as to why the Jagan government did not send the allotment of tender to JP Power Venture for the judicial preview 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. The 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, he said.

Pattabhi said that on November 18, 2019, the YSRCP released an advertisement saying that two lakh tonnes of sand would be supplied to the people every day. Going by this, over 6 crore tonnes sand would be mined and supplied each year excluding offseason months. But the latest information given by the government indicated mining of only 4 crore tonnes. This was enough to say how the YSRCP top coterie had masterminded a massive corruption deal to sell over 2 crore tonnes in 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, the YSRCP leaders in their respective Assembly constituencies plundered all the sand resources and gave accounts to Jagan Reddy's Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy every now and then. They had looted the states' wealth in a retail manner. 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.

Pattabhi advised the Chief Minister to close down the AP State Mineral Development Corporation as his government was bent on privatising the mining sector. The sand mining was already placed in the private hands just like how the state's indirect approval was given for the privatisation of the Visakha steel plant, he added.