CM minting money through sand smuggling, alleges Lokesh

Tirupati: Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has been minting thousands of crores through illegal sand transport, alleged TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh here on Saturday. On the 27th day of his padayatra 'Yuva Galam', he had an interaction with the construction workers at the campsite near Ankura Hospital who narrated their problems to him.

They said that several workers are migrating to other states as they lost employment here due to the steep hike in the prices of sand, iron and other material. The government promised to pay Rs 10,000 each to save the workers from the predicament and even collected several documents for them but till now not even a single rupee is paid.

They even complained that the Building and Construction Workers Welfare Cess funds too have been diverted. Not even identity cards are being issued to them. An electrician, Balaji informed Lokesh that at least 20 persons were working with him and since the permissions for new buildings are not being issued they lost employment. "'We do not want any alms from the government but at least employment opportunities should be created for us to earn our livelihood," he opined. Responding to their heart-rending problems, Lokesh said that all their issues will be resolved on a war footing basis once the TDP government is formed again. "Under Jagan's government gold may be available but not sand," he remarked. The CM is earning Rs 3 crore a day on illegal sale of sand and Rs1,000 crore per month. With this one can easily imagine how much money he is minting through illegal sand sale. The price of sand during the TDP regime was a mere Rs 1,000 per tonne and after YSRCP came to power it went up to Rs 5000, he noted.

Stating that Tirupati has two MLAs B Karunakar Reddy and his son Abhinay Reddy and both of them are illegally collecting lakhs of rupees even for sanctioning permissions to build houses, he alleged. Even for drilling borewells one has to pay Rs 2-3 lakh, he stated. Lokesh promised to initiate all possible welfare schemes for construction workers once the TDP is back in power and will also waive their loans.

Later in the evening, Lokesh began his Yuva Galam from the campsite as thousands of youth welcomed him. The youth who walked along with him complained to him about growing unemployment in the state in the past three-and-a-half years. He also had an interaction with petty traders on the way. Meanwhile, the padayatra proceeded in several streets of the city and completed in Tirupati Assembly constituency by Saturday night and he entered Chandragiri constituency where he will stay overnight.