All GOs were in order, Ministers tell SC

New Delhi, Dec 4, 2012:
In a major development in YSR Congress chief Sri Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s
properties case, five ministers and five IAS officers defended themselves in
their individual affidavits submitted to the Supreme Court on Monday in the 26
GOs case saying the GOs were totally in order and issued for industrial
development in the state.

The issue that Supreme
Court will now examine is how Sri Jagan Mohan Reddy could be found fault if
there were no illegalities in the 26 GOs issued by Dr. YSR Government as
submitted by the Ministers and IAS officials. The apex court will hear the case
on Dec 10.  

Saying that the Cabinet
as a whole held responsibility for the GOs, Ministers Geeta Reddy, Ponnala
Lakshmaiah, Dharmana Prasada Rao, Kanna Lakshminarayana and Sabitha Indra Reddy
and former minister Mopidevi Venkataramana, IAS officials Samuel, Manmohan
Singh, Adityanath Das, SV Prasad and Syambau submitted their affidavits to the
apex court here on Monday, the last day of the deadline.

The representatives of
Ministers and IAS officials rushed to the apex court at the eleventh hour
before the close of the deadline. “The GOs, issued in the interest of the state
were completely in order and no rules were violated and we could not be held
responsible individually as the GOs were the result of the joint decisions of
the Cabinet,” they said in their separate affidavits.

The Ministers and IAS officers
said all the GOs were issued subject to the AP Government Business Rules and
Secretariat Instructions and after thorough discussions in the Council of
Ministers. “We didn’t resort to any criminalities in issuing the GOs which were
aimed at industrial progress of the AP state,” they said.

The Ministers and IAS
officers were asked to submit their affidavits in March last on filing of a PIL
by a Nellore based lawyer but they have dragged on the case till the deadline
given by the apex court’s registrar.

While IAS officers CVSK
Sarma and Rathna Prabha had filed their affidavits long ago, suspended IAS
officer Sri Lakshmi was given a deadline of Dec 13 for submission of her
affidavit on health grounds.