 "Revanth Reddy")
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Revanth Reddy alleged that Outer Ring Road (ORR) scam is a thousand times bigger than the Delhi liquor scam.
He said ORR became the gateway to quench Chief Minister's son KT Rama Rao's thirst for money.
Talking to the media here on Friday, the TPCC chief said, "ORR Toll Scam is a thousand times bigger than the Delhi liquor scam and that ORR has become the victim of KTR's thirst for money."
Reddy further mentioned that the Delhi liquor scam is very small compared to ORR scams as the ORR tenders are related to one lakh crores.
"In the CBI investigation, MLC Kavitha is facing allegations that she gave Rs 100 crore to CM Kejriwal in an attempt to change the liquor policy in their favour. But it is alleged that the matter of ORR tenders is related to one lakh crores. Such valuable property was sold for only Rs.7,300 crores," he said.
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"The Delhi liquor scam is very small compared to this but what are the BJP leaders doing if the looting is going on so openly? If such a big scam is going on in Telangana, why are Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay silent? Why did ED and CBI not conduct raids?" he added.
He also said that if KCR and KTR are the beneficiaries, Somesh Kumar and Arvind Kumar are the masterminds and protagonists.
Hitting out at Bharatiya Janata Party and Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the KPCC chief said that BJP and BRS are one and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are inseparable twins.
"BRS and BJP are one and the same. This is evidenced by the comments made by the BJP National General Secretary, the leader who was in charge of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and is now in charge of Madhya Pradesh during a recent chit-chat with the media. Their national leaders themselves are saying that BJP is in the third position in Telangana," he said.
"BJP leaders are saying how they can win without 40 strong leaders. They clearly said that their aim is to prevent Congress from winning. BRS will win in this process. As we have been saying before, BJP and BRS are one. KCR and Modi are inseparable twins," he added.
Reddy also questioned the intent of the BJP and asked why the Central government is not conducting an investigation into the ORR scam.
The TPCC Chief said, "What is the Center doing about the ORR toll scam? Why is the investigation not being conducted? In the past on the same topic, I have mentioned changing the rules in favour of the company that won the tender, calling for tenders without base price, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) master plan ends in 2031, in the background, there will be problems if the lease is given for 30 years, so the tender period should not be for such a long period."
Questioning the tendering process, Reddy said, "I have also mentioned the way in which the tender process was taken up ignoring the National Highways Authority of India's (NHAI) suggestion that no more had been given. According to my information, the company that won the tender has to pay 10 per cent of the total value of the tender within 30 days and the remaining 90 per cent within 120 days."
He also asked for clarification from Former CS Somesh Kumar and Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) Commissioner Arvind Kumar on the concession agreement.
"Arvind Kumar and Somesh Kumar have the responsibility to say whether the concession agreement that I put out today is true or not. The Letter of Agreement regarding the ORR tender was done on April 27, 2023. The 30 days have expired today. Now, IRB organization has to pay 25 per cent i.e. Rs 1800 crores of Rs.7,300 crores to the government," he said.
"It is not known whether the IRB organization has paid the money or not. If the payment is not made, the tender for the IRB institution should be cancelled for violation of tender norms. KTR should respond to this issue. If he is busy on a foreign tour, Arvind Kumar should respond," he added.
TPCC chief alleged Arvind Kumar is responsible for the ORR scam and said that he should be put behind bars.
"Arvind Kumar is fully responsible for this. Arvind Kumar would be behind bars if there are any discrepancies. If the tender rules are changed then this too will be a scam like Delhi Liquor Scam. When the Delhi Liquor Policy was formulated, the rules were stricter initially. BRS leader Kavitha went and lobbied and got the rules changed in favour of the South Group," he said.
"The main charge is that Rs 100 crore was given as a bribe in that case. On that excuse, the BJP government made large-scale arrests. ORR is a bigger scam than that. Lakh crore projects worth of projects were handed over for just Rs.7000 crores. Why is the BJP government not taking action on this?" he added.
He also questioned why Kishan Reddy is not demanding an investigation in this matter and said that he will fight a legal battle over this.
"Being a Central Minister, why is Kishan Reddy not demanding an investigation? What is the conspiracy behind this? Raghunandan complained to the CBI about the ORR tender. It should be clarified whether Bandi Sanjay and Kishan Reddy believe in their own MLA's complaint or not. The ORR tender matter will not be abandoned so quickly. I will fight a legal battle over this," he said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
