YSR schemes mired with nepotism, shadiness, profiteering: Wikileaks

Deceased Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy's populist schemes kept him comfortably in power from 2004 to his sudden death five years later, but they were also conduits for massive corruption, US consul general David Hopper, then based in Chennai, wrote in a confidential cable newly released by WikiLeaks that’s doing the rounds on the internet.

A leaked diplomatic cable dispatched by the US Consul General in Chennai in 2007 had nailed the then Congress government headed by YS Rajasekhara Reddy in Andhra Pradesh for "widespread corruption that was beyond the pale" even for India.

The YSR government's flagship programmes - construction of irrigation projects and houses for weaker sections - were beset with corruption even as Mr Reddy used the populist spending programmes to great political effect, the cable said.

In the name of social programmes which targeted common man, the YSR government had engaged in corruption which was beyond the norm of India, said WikiLeaks.

It is said that, generally 5-7 % is the rate of corruption as it is an inevitable aftermath of any project, but in Reddy's irrigation programme, that figure is more like 15 to 20%. "The sheer size of Reddy's signature programmes, with literally billions of dollars at play every year, leaves much room for 'leakage' to Congress party officials and their allies." “Reddy’s big-ticket social programmes to do with the irrigation and building houses for the poor were mired in nepotism, shadiness and profiteering,” said the cable. ''Widespread corruption in the Congress government seems to be an ‘open secret’ in Andhra Pradesh,” it added.