VIJAYAWADA: Refuting the allegations of corruption and irregularities in execution of Amaravati projects, TDP supremo and Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu dared the State government to prove its allegations.
Alleging that the YSRC had made several attempts to thwart the capital city project, he sought to know why the ruling party was continuing its grudge on Amaravati.
Alleging that the failure on the part of the State government led to the World Bank dropping the Amaravati project, Naidu said,“YSRC leaders have damaged the image of the capital city and created obstacles to investments. What efforts did the new government make for the last two months with regard to World Bank funding to Amaravati?
“Amaravati is the self respect and dream of 5 crore people of the State. We aspire to develop it is as a dynamic city for creation of wealth and generation of employment. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, when in opposition, not even attended the foundation stone laying ceremony of the capital city and humiliated the then TDP ministers when they went to invite him,’’ Naidu said in the Assembly. Later addressing a press conference, Naidu launched a scathing attack on the YSRC government over branding the previous TDP regime as corrupt and announced to release fact papers on Amaravati, Polavaram and housing projects.
Taking a dig at the government for taking claim for the USD 328 million loan approved by the World Bank for AP, Naidu pointed out, “Despite the fact that the World Bank approved the loan on May 15, before the declaration of election results and formation of the government, the YSRC government is taking credit for it. It’s hilarious.”
Stating that the contracting agencies executing works in Amaravati were prominent firms, he refuted the allegations of irregularities in the tendering process. In fact, there was no mention of corruption in the World Bank report and it only mentioned about rehabilitation. But, the YSRC was making false propaganda out of it, he said and blamed the government for the World Bank pulling out of the Amaravati project.
“There is no wonder even if Jagan terms the Chandrayaan-2 as a scam for spending `1,000 crore on it,’’ Naidu said, taking a dig at the Chief Minister.