Graft case in Siemens project fabricated: Pattabhi
Rs 371 Cr paid during Premachandra Reddy’s term
AMARAVATI: TDP national spokesman K. Pattabhi Ram on Friday accused the YSRCP Government of misusing the AP CID once more to file yet another fabricated case in the name of alleged corruption in the Rs. 3,300-Cr AP Siemens Skill Development Project.
Pattabhi Ram pointed out that the previous TDP regime approved this project which involved 90 percent investment by Siemens and just 10 percent by the AP Government. As part of this, AP paid Rs. 371 Cr towards its share and over 40 Centres of Excellence and Skill Development Centres were established all over the State.
Addressing a press conference here, the TDP leader said the payment of Rs. 371 Cr was made during the term of senior IAS officer L. Premachandra Reddy as the managing director of AP Skill Development Corporation between November 2015 and March 2016. Why was the CID not going to Premachandra Reddy’s house to question him about the so-called fraud
Pattabhi Ram strongly objected to the manner in which the AP CID went to the residence of former IAS officer K. Laxminarayana and started harassing his family. Over 11 IAS officers were involved in approving and monitoring the Siemens Centres. But, just Laxminarayana and Ghanta Subba Rao were implicated in the latest CID case. This was nothing about one more politically motivated case.
The TDP leader asserted that the YSRCP Government and the CID started one more ‘attentional diversion game’ in the name of fraud in Siemens centres in view of rising public resentment and impending court cases. The ruling party was desperate to divert the public attention from the increasing support to Maha Padayatra of Amaravati farmers and also increased stress from the CM’s illegal assets cases and Viveka murder case.
Pattabhi Ram said that the Chandrababu regime approved the Siemens centres based on a recommendation of a high-level team that visited Gujarat State and studied similar projects there. Senior most IAS officers like Ajay Jain, SS Rawat and others, who were presently serving in high positions in the YSRCP regime, were also involved in the AP Siemens project at that time.
The TDP leader pointed out that one of the Siemens centres was set up at the IIIT, Idupulapaya, in Kadapa district. The other beneficiary institutions included JNTU Kakinada, Andhra University Engineering College, Vignan Foundation, GMR Engineering College and so on.
Pattabhi Ram asserted that over 2.30 lakh students got trained at the Siemens skill development centres and over 60,000 of them got placements from 2016-`17 to 2020-`21. Over 99,000 students got industry oriented training at these centres till now under the YSRCP regime.
