Roads and buildings minister Dharmana Prasada Rao, whose resignation is pending with chief minister N.Kiran Kumar Reddy, seems to have not got any assurance form him that the government will rescue him from the CBI charges pertaining to the Vanpic aspect of assets case against YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The minister submitted his reply to the chief minister to the notices sent by the government over the charges levelled against Dharmana by the CBI when he met Kiran Reddy on Saturday night. However, sources close to the minister divulged that Dharmana did not get any assurance from the chief minister that the government would bail him out.
Dharmana is going to appear in the special court for CBI cases on Tuesday and the chief minister wants not to intervene in the matter at this juncture and is adopting a “wait and watch” attitude. Kiran Reddy is understood to be of the opinion that as the case is already in the court, any intervention by the government at this time would further damage the image of the government.
Apart from Dharmana, four ministers P Sabita Indra Reddy, Kanna Lakshminarayana, J Geetha Reddy and Ponnala Lakshmaiah, who had received Supreme Court notices on issuance of 26 GOs during the YSR regime, wanted a probe into the decisions taken by the Rajasekhara Reddy’s cabinet to prove their innocence.
But the chief minister made it clear on Saturday that before taking any decision on the demand of the four ministers, he had to examine it thoroughly.
When asked whether he got any specific assurance form the chef minister that the government would go to his rescue, the minister, during a press conference at his residence here on Sunday, replied that he was of the opinion that the state government would extend support to him.
“I believe that the chief minister will examine the issues raised by me in the reply which I have submitted to him,” he said. The minister made it clear that it was up to the chief minister what decision he would take on the resignation which has been lying on the table of Kiran Reddy for the past 40 days. Asked about when he would resume his ministerial duties, Dharmana said future would decide it.
But he clarified that the chief minister had not asked him to discharge his ministerial duties. Replying to a question on why he did not resume his work even after AICC state affairs in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad asked him to do so, Darmana evaded a straight reply, saying, “As I have submitted my reply to the chief minister, I hope, after going through this, my party high command will also arrive at a decision.”