A day after YSRCP Rajya Sabha MP Vijaysai Reddy leveled sweeping allegations against Kanna Lakshminarayana, the BJP State president slammed the Jagan administration saying the government had put the lives of crores of people in Andhra Pradesh at stake by indulging in politics of pandemic rather than addressing several problems arising out of the corona virus.
On the controversy over the cost of procuring rapid testing kits from South Korea for screening of corona cases, Kanna said the government should come clean on the conflicting versions on the pricing of the testing kits. The government showed that the cost of each kit was Rs 730 plus GST while the agriculture department stated that each kit was procured at Rs 640. The YSRCP mouthpiece Sakshi newspaper in its April 9 report stated that each kit cost Rs 1,200. As a matter of fact, the Sakshi newspaper reported that the kits were being exported to other countries from MedTech Zone. The Chhattisgarh government had procured each kit for Rs 337. “Which one of this is true? Why there are so many conflicting versions on the cost of each kit. The government should come clean on this. When I tweeted on this issue, Vijaysai Reddy leveled serious allegations against me,” he pointed out.
Vijaysai Reddy has lowered the dignity of his post by levelling unfounded allegations and petty charges against him to divert the attention from the corona crisis in the state. He accused the BJP State president Kanna Lakshminarayana of dancing to the tunes of the TDP and that he was making allegations against the YSRCP government without the approval of the party central leadership due to some deal struck with BJP MP Y Sujana Chowdary. “Kanna Lakshminarayana is sold to the TDP for Rs 20 crore and BJP MP Sujana Chowdary has acted as a broker in this deal,” he said defaming Kanna.
Kanna said it was sad that people who went to jail for serious corruption charges were levelling charges against him and warned of criminal lawsuit against Vijaysai Reddy. Kanna said those who live in glass palaces cannot hurl stones at others.
Vijaysai Reddy faces several charges including criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, falsification of accounts and criminal misconduct. In addition, he was also charged of playing a mischief role in the sale of shares, worth Rs 533 crore, of Sandur Power Company owned by Jagan. He is currently on bail. Kanna said those who live in glass palaces cannot hurl stones at others.
Kanna shot off a letter to Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday demanding that the government come to the rescue of the distressed cane farmers in the state. In the letter, Kanna said though the government had set up Markfed centers to procure produce directly from the farmers it had failed to address the problems of cane growers of Krishna delta. He said the agriculture ministry had failed to maintain data and records to include the entire land cultivated by the sugarcane growers. “The agriculture department had included in its records only 25 per cent of land under cultivation by sugar cane growers. Now, the Marfed officials are asking the sugarcane growers to show documents,” he said.
