Jagan favouring his yesmen in power-purchasing tenders, says Payyavula

TDP MLA and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Payyavula Kesav, on Tuesday said that Chief Minister, Jgan Mohan Reddy, is favouring his own associates in power purchasing tenders thus forcing the government to lose heavily.

Kesav told media persons through Zoom that by favouring his own men in power purchase agreements, the State government is imposing a heavy burden on the common man. Stating that Jagan Mohan Reddy, soon after becoming the Chief Minister in his maiden speech levelled several allegations against the TDP government that several irregularities had taken place in the purchase of solar power, Kesav said that the Chief Minister even declared that a probe would be ordered into these irregularities.

“Later, on the floor of the Assembly too, Jagan made several charges against the TDP government and tried to make people believe these issues,” Kesav said and asked if any irregularities had taken place during Chandrababu Naidu’s regime why the Jagan government is keeping mum till now. The ruling party even knocked at the High Court doors too and finally felt embarrassed, he added.

The High Court has made it clear that there were absolutely no irregularities in the power purchase agreements during the Chandrababu regime, Kesav said and stated that the Jagan government too agreed with the High Court order. The government even released the necessary funds, but the Jagan Reddy government’s statements only resulted in the investors to take back their decisions, he stated.

The situation has come to such a pass that the whole country is not believing the Andhra Pradesh government, the MLA said and stated that the decisions taken by the Jagan government seriously hit the power sector. The State government which made a large-scale false campaign on the solar power sector has again recalled tenders only to hand over the contracts to its yesmen and thus cancelled the tenders called during the TDP regime, he said.

“When the government tried to allot the contracts to the Adani Group, the Tata Group approached the court. Finally, the court cancelled the contracts saying that these contracts are being illegally allotted to the Adani Group,” he remarked.

Kesav asked as to why the State government tried to accept the tenders by a contractor which were rejected by the whole country. This is nothing but to favour close associates of Jagan, he remarked.

Maintaining that the TDP wants to ensure that the people should not suffer any losses due to the faulty policies of the ruling dispensation, Kesav asked why the tenders were allotted in a pumped storage system against the Central norms and against the Supreme Court order. He felt that the tender system should be transparent and demanded that the agreements be reviewed.