Venkataswamy offers to quit

Hyderabad, Jul 27 (UNI) Senior Congress leader and Parliamentary Party Deputy Leader G Venkatswamy today refuted a news report in a regional daily here that his son and Labour Minister G Vinod was allegedly misusing' Two acre land of AP Housing Board leased out to Ambedkar Education Society.

If anybody could prove the charge, he would resign, he told newsmen here.

Mr Venkatswamy said the news story was published without clarifying facts. He would not find fault with publication but the scribe who filed the story. ''Anyway I will not file a defamation against the scribe or the publisher,'' he added.

He said his son G Vinod was the secretary of the Society. As a Minister he did not have any links with the Society. ''The Society was established in 1973 at Baghlingampally and for the past 33 years we are imparting education to Dalit community without taking donations'', he added.

Mr Venkataswamy said a portion of AP Housing Board land was taken on lease near the Society Building where a school building existed. Later, the Society opened junior, degree and law colleges.

''In the Two acre lease land, the society set up a few shops and is getting Rs 62,000 as rent every month. These shops were built to support the Society in running the institutions efficiently but not for some other purpose'', he clarified.

Mr Venkataswamy said they were also paying the lease amount to the Housing Board.

Unable to digest the fact that Society was running educational institutions in favour of Dalit students, some people were throwing mud on them. ''At the same time, the report was put out to discredit Vinod in the wake of reports about state cabinet reshuffle'', he charged.

Mr Vinod was also present at the press conference.

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