Place Lok Ayukta report on 'irrigation scam' in Assembly: TDP

Hyderabad, Feb 22 (UNI) TDP Legislature Party Deputy Leader T Devender Goud today challenged the Andhra Pradesh Government to place the report of the Lok Ayukta, which probed the alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Yellampalli irrigation project, in the Assembly.

Initiating the debate on the state budget, Mr Goud said if there was no prima facie case, the Lok Ayukta would not have called for files and summoned officials and ministers in this connection.

When the TDP raised the issue in the Assembly, the Government ''sidetracked'' the issue but the TDP's stand had been vindicated by the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, who had found that the internal benchmark mark (IBM) had been inflated to benefit the contractor concerned, he pointed out.

Alleging large scale corruption in the Government's prestigious 'Jalayagnam' programme, he claimed that many of the project works were being executed by ineligible sub-contractors.

Intervening, Government Chief Whip N Kiran Kumar Reddy maintained that the CAG had indicted the previous TDP Government on several occasions and the government was ready for a debate on the CAG findings during the past TDP regime and the present Congress regime.

It was the previous TDP Government, which had scuttled the probe into the liquor scam by the Court for Anti-Corruption Bureau Cases and the disproportionate assets case against the then Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu by going to higher courts, Mr Reddy alleged.

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