TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh made a scathing attack on Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy calling him the ‘Don’ of the sand mafia, and accused him of being the root cause of the rampant corruption and land scams in the state.
Lokesh said the Jagan government had cancelled free sand policy in the state, a move to encourage sand mafia which has left lakhs of construction workers with no work. Sand scarcity in Andhra Pradesh was created by a sand mafia which was active with the full support of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. “The man-made scarcity of sand has brought the construction activity in the state to a halt. Lokesh said several workers committed suicide as they were not finding the work in the absence of construction activity.
Further, Lokesh said Andhra Pradesh had lost major investments due to the unsavory decisions taken by the Jaganmohan Reddy’s government. With Jagan’s reverse tendering policies Andhra Pradesh has slipped into investment unfriendly state with major investors backing out of the projects entered into with the previous TDP government.
“Naidu succeeded in bringing in Kia Motors, the Isuzu and Ashok Leyland to the state in the hope of turning the state into a manufacturing hub. The Jagan government scared away big investors to Andhra Pradesh despite Andhra Pradesh having enormous potential for attracting domestic and foreign investments. Chandrababu Naidu garu took so much care to build AP into a ‘Sunrise State’ with his business friendly policies to attract global investors.
Sadly, the ‘Sunrise State’ under the TDP government has now turned into a Sunset State’. We brought the Kia Motors to Andhra Pradesh with great difficulties. The present government harassed the management of Kia Motors and subsqueently several accessories industries went away to other states. We could attract big investments from Foxconn, HCL, Kia Motors, Adani, Reliance. Today, Andhra Pradesh has become a ‘Sunset State’ because of the flawed polices and vendetta politics of the present government,” Lokesh hit out.
Adani Group’s solar-powered data storage and technology park remains in a limbo, United Arab Emirates-based conglomerate Lulu Group is not keen on fresh investments in Andhra Pradesh, while Reliance Group had once threatened to withdraw its investment proposal to build mega electronics manufacturing project in Tirupati.
Indonesia-based Asia Pulp & Paper, which entered into one of the biggest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) agreements with the TDP government at that time, had backed out under the YSRCP government. After Jagan came to power on May 30, around Rs 55,000 crore worth of work commissioned by Naidu came to a grinding halt in Amaravati.
Turning his guns on YSRCP Rajya Sabha MP Vijaysai Reddy, Lokesh said the A2 Sai Reddy has turned Visakhapatnam, often known as the ‘steel city’, into the ‘stolen city’. He said Vijaysai Reddy has eyed the prime lands in Vizag. He said Vijaysai Reddy was involved in Rs 1,000 crore land scam in Waltair and Daspalla Hills in Visakhapatnam.
Lokesh also pointed out there was largescale corruption in procurement of kits and masks to contain the spread of corona virus. He said the state government had procured rapid testing kits from South Korea at a cost higher than other states. The Andhra Pradesh government paid Rs 730 plus GST for each kit, while Chhatisgarh bought each kit for Rs 337 + GST. Further, he said the state government had made huge profits by selling masks at higher prices. “Substandard masks were procured at Rs 9 and were sold at Rs 30 each. The state government sold around 5 crore masks and profited by at least Rs 30 crore,” he pointed out.
