Capital corruption @ Amaravati

Tadepalli, April 19: Former Minister and YSRCP Party Regional Coordinator Karumuri Venkata Nageswara Rao lambasted the coalition government for orchestrating widespread corruption in Amaravati’s construction. The government is enabling unchecked looting through syndicates and shady deals, awarding contracts to favoured firms with 8 percent commissions skimmed from mobilization advances. Thousands of crores have been siphoned off even before works begin, he said.

Nageswararao highlighted that the YSRCP’s efforts to provide housing plots to the poor in Amaravati were blocked by legal challenges from opponents. Between 2014 and 2019, temporary assembly and secretariat buildings facilitated massive plunder, and now, under the pretext of permanent structures, the looting has resumed. Farmers who gave up land have been denied promised returnable plots, left cheated.

The YSRCP’s reverse tendering and judicial preview saved thousands of crores, but the coalition scrapped it, handing contracts to cronies. Transparent tendering could have saved Rs. 3,500 crore, he noted. Instead, inflated costs burden the public with loans and interest, with no welfare schemes in sight. He questioned the government’s governance, asking what justifies borrowing lakhs of crores while public funds are plundered and people’s welfare is neglected.