TDP Demands Buggana's Resignation over Alleged Mismanagement of Rs 649 Crore

Amaravati: The TDP leader and former minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao demanded resignation of Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy for his blunder of transferring Rs 649 Cr for second time to various contractors, in a press conference on Friday.

Devineni alleged that the YSRCP Government was systematically destroying the Comprehensive Financial Management System (CFMS) brought in by the previous TDP government for transparency and accountability in the State's financial management.

He demanded Rajendranath Reddy to tender resignation immediately owning up responsibility for his irresponsibility and mismanagement.

If these payments were made through frontend, the government would have to become accountable. The CM and the Finance Minister were running the State treasury as if it was their own bank.

The TDP leader asserted that the Government was now trying to escape from its accountability saying that there was a technical mistake in the transfer of Rs. 649 Cr for a second time. At the same time, there was no information whether the double payment was recovered from the receivers or whether any efforts were being made to recover the huge amounts. This was all done with an ulterior motive by the ruling party only to plunder the public money in the name of technical mistakes, he criticised.

Objecting the top officials, he said that they were trying to fix the blame for Rs. 649 double payments on some lower level programmers who would not figure anywhere in the administration. A relative of the Minister along with some others had taken total control of the finances now, he alleged. They were calling and asking big firms about their castes and communities before clearing huge bills, he criticised. A Pune-based company had this bitter experience and they were asked whether any of its directors or stakeholders belonged to a particular caste.

The TDP leader deplored that the Accountant General had not taken up any enquiry into such a massive fraud till now. Apparently, the Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and his Government were deliberately making backend payments to the receivers since they would not come under the purview of audit.