Jagan’s new sand deal triggers corruption allegations

Is Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy setting his sights on the overall sand resources of Andhra Pradesh under the garb of a bankrupt company like JP Power Ventures? The JP Power company is incurring losses of over Rs. 3,500 Cr per year but the Jagan Reddy regime has allotted all the sand reaches in the State to it as part of a ‘secret deal’. Rivals say that Jagan Reddy’s personal business with AP resources has entered sand also along with liquor and cement.

TDP leader Kommareddy Pattabhi says 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’. The CM’s secret deal is getting exposed now. 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 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 Cr 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 stage was now set for collecting Rs. 450 per tonne of sand from the people. The previous Chandrababu regime adopted a free sand policy in order to remove any burden on the common man. That helped in creating work opportunities for lakhs of construction workers. The Jagan artificial sand shortage claimed the lives of construction workers. The irregularities in the online sand policy led to people buying sand at Rs. 9,000 per tractor load. Whereas, door delivery of a tractor load of sand was given at just Rs. 1,500 during the TDP rule.