Telugu Desam Party National spokesperson Kommareddy Pattabhi alleged that Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy was starting a wholesale business with the overall sand resources of Andhra Pradesh under the garb of a bankrupt company like JP Power Ventures.
Mr. Pattabhi said that the JP Power company was incurring losses of over Rs. 3,500 crore per year but the Jagan Reddy regime has allotted all the sand reaches in the State to it as part of a secret deal. With this, Jagan Reddy’s personal wholesale business with AP resources has entered sand also along with liquor and cement.
Addressing a press conference here, the TDP leader asserted that it was because of this limitless greed of Jagan Reddy that the industrialists and traders in the State were calling him as ‘Wholesale Reddy’. This time, the CM unveiled a plan to plunder thousands of crores rupees in the sand business as well from this year. The YCP Government owed an explanation to the people whether the Chief Minister has vested interests in this sand deal or not.
Mr. Pattabhi said that Peddibhotla Gangadhara Sastry, who was a director of the JP Power Ventures, was the same person who worked in the Jagan Co-accused Ayodhya Rami Reddy’s Ramki company. Gangadhara Sastry has also worked as Director in the Athena Power Ltd which Jagan once thought of buying. It was now clear that Jagan Reddy used Sastry to strike a ‘quid pro quo’ deal with the JP Power Ventures to loot AP sand.
The TDP leader said that the JP Power would be getting more than Rs. 2,000 Cr revenue per year which was why it was ready to pay Rs. 765 crore to the Government in the sand deal. Jagan Reddy was minting huge money in such business deals and using that money to win elections in an undemocratic manner. The people should think about the Chief Minister’s atrocious deals as they were imposing unbearable burdens on all sections of society.
Mr. Pattabhi deplored that the shifting of sand resources into the private hands would put an additional burden on the people. The stage was now set for collecting Rs. 450 per tonne of sand from the people. If the people would not revolt against the Jagan Reddy mindless exploitation, the State would be sold in a wholesale deal sooner than later. The CM was playing dangerous games with the future of AP and its young generations.