KT Rama Rao alleges irregularities in AMRUT tenders in Telangana, says classic example of "crony capitalism"
New Delhi: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao on Tuesday alleged irregularities in tenders awarded under the AMRUT 2.0 scheme in Telangana under Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.
Alleged "corruption" and "crony capitalism" in tenders worth Rs 8,888 crore awarded under the AMRUT 2.0 scheme, the BRS president has urged for an investigation by the Central government.
Addressing a press briefing in the national capital today, KTR alleged that a contract worth Rs 1137 crore was awarded to a company that belongs to the brother-in-law of chief minister Reddy.
Under AMRUT 2.0, tenders were called in February this year... Packages totalling Rs. 8,888 crores were called for in February this year..."
"I am going to talk more about the rampant corruption in Telangana... AMRUT is a scheme launched by the government of India to facilitate the creation of infrastructure in towns with a population of more than 1 lakh. I want to point out one company called Shodha Constructions. Directors audited report 2021-22 shows a net profit of Rs. 2.2 crore. It is a very small company which has no qualifications or capital to execute any kind of work. In 2021, this company's net profit was Rs. 3.5 crore... This company belongs to the brother-in-law of CM Revanth Reddy. The brother-in-law's name is Srujan Reddy and this company Shodha Constructions is an unknown entity as far as Telangana and Andhra are concerned," KT Rama Rao said.
He further stated that the company got attention after Revanth Reddy became the Chief Minister of the state and termed it as a "classic" example of "crony capitalism."
"As soon as Revanth Reddy becomes CM, this company magically starts getting a lot of attention and the crony capitalism that Rahul Gandhi keeps talking about, this is a classic example of that," he said.
"This company is an unknown entity with no qualifications to be able to execute a large quantum of work to the extent of Rs 1137 crore and has been awarded a package which is humongous for a company of this size... This came to the fore on March 13, when the Indian Hume Pipe Company wrote a letter to the NSE and BSE...that they have made a joint venture with AMR and Shodha Construction and got a tender of Rs 1137 crore," he said.
"In this letter, IHP says, 'the value of the work awarded is Rs 1137 crore excluding GST and the share of the works executed by IHP is 20 per cent only...' The money is from government of India but the Department comes under the CM... The company is of CM's brother-in-law and 80 per cent of the work is awarded to him in the Joint Venture," BRS working president alleged.
KTR who is currently in Delhi said, "... There is rampant corruption in Telangana. The state has become an ATM for the Congress. In the AMRUT scheme, there has been corruption. CM's brother-in-law's company which does not qualify, has been awarded a work of Rs. 1137 crore... We came here to expose this crony capitalism to Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar... He said that he would look into it... We will continue to question them inside and outside of the Parliament if we don't get an answer... Shodha Construction's owner, Srujan Reddy is the brother-in-law of Revanth Reddy... The company which was used to get the qualification, Indian Hume Pipe, got only 20 per cent of the work..."
