HYDERABAD: Condemning BRS working president KT Rama Rao’s allegations against Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, I&PR Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy threatened legal action against the former. Asserting that Sudini Srujan Reddy was not Revanth’s brother-in-law, Srinivasa Reddy said: “Srujan is in fact very close to Rama Rao and the son-in-law of former MLA Upender Reddy,”
Stating that he would resign as minister if Rama Rao proves his allegations, Srinivasa Reddy challenged the Sircilla MLA to step down from his post if he failed to substantiate his claims. He said: “Rama Rao is crying foul because his close benami friends, who cartelised and tried to loot government money, lost out in a transparent bidding process. The MLA tried to secure tenders through his benamis before the elections, but lost the opportunity to benefit from government funds. The total tender value is Rs 3,602 crore. After being a minister for 10 years and being involved in the tender process, the BRS leader should know the numbers.”
The minister pointed out that the government granted administrative approval on September 20, 2023, for Rs 5,385 crore for 98 water supply and nine sewerage projects in three packages under AMRUT 2.0. The last date of submission was November 14, 2023 and the tenders were opened on November 29, 2023, during the Assembly elections, without EC’s approval.
Followed transparent procedure: Min
Elaborating on the package, Srinivasa Reddy said: “For Package 1, PLR Projects Pvt Ltd (belonging to former AP minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy and former YSRCP MP Mithun Reddy) became the L1 bidder for Rs 1,154 crore, for Package 2, Gaja Engineering Private Limited, owned by Satyam’s Teja Raju) and Prathima Infrastructure, owned by Boinpally Srinivas Rao were L1 for Rs 1,180 crore and for Package 3, MEIL became L1 for Rs 1,321 crore. In all three packages, the L1 bidders quoted 3.99% excess.”
He said that after identifying irregularities, the Congress government called for fresh tenders. “In the fresh tenders, a transparent procedure was followed. Bidders were selected by the Commissionerate of Tenders. Contract was awarded and works are under progress. In the first round, the total contract amount was Rs 3,656 crore; in the second round it was Rs 3,602 crore, with total savings of Rs 54.5 crore.”
He asked Rama Rao to explain why the Peddireddy family, Teja Raju and Prathima Srinivas did not participate in the second round of tenders if they had already conducted evaluations.