Sack tainted ministers, Raghavulu demands

Vijayawada: Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) State secretary BV Raghavulu here on Wednesday asked the Congress leadership to sack the tainted ministers from the Cabinet. Addressing a media conference, Raghavulu said that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and the Congress president Botcha Satyanarayana were currently camping in New Delhi holding discussions with the party high command. He said that the media reported that the Congress high command was contemplating on the cabinet's expansion. He wanted to know whether the Congress was in favour of removing the tainted ministers and inducting new faces or would continue with the same ministers. He said that former minister Mopidevi Venkataramana was in the jail, while other Ministers Dharmana Prasada Rao and Sabitha Indra Reddy were facing corruption charges. He said that the names of these Ministers were included in the charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He wanted to know why the government is delaying in removing the Ministers from the Cabinet. He also said that several other Ministers were also facing corruption charges. Minister for Secondary Education K Parthasaradhi too was facing court cases of cheating the Election Commission. However, he was continuing in the cabinet exposing the corrupt nature of the Congress government in the State. He also took exception to the government for providing legal assistance to the tainted Ministers. Raghavulu also blamed the Congress leadership for the political and administrative uncertainty in the State. He said that the ruling Congress both in the State and at the Centre was delaying decision on the demand for formation of Telangana State. He demanded the Congress leadership to take a decision on the issue and end the political impasse. He wanted the leadership to clear the stalemate as the development, besides law and order, had affected in the State hitting the economy. Referring to the Chief Minister's tall claims on the 'Amma Hastham' programme through which the government was giving nine provisions to the white card holders in the State at just Rs 185, the CPI-M leader dubbed the scheme as farce. He further said that Minister Dokka Manikya Varaprasad had stated that the government was spending Rs 5,000 crore for the scheme and wondered from where the government would bring this money. He also asked the government to show provisions for the scheme in the budget. He asked the government to make clear how would it implement the scheme without budgetary allocations for the scheme. Stating that the Congress leadership had promised Cash- Transfer-Scheme to avoid misuse of money through various subsidies, Raghavulu wanted to know why the State government had again introduced the subsidised provisions scheme. He asked the Congress leadership to make it clear whether it supports Cash-Transfer-Scheme or the subsidies. He alleged that the Congress was trying to cheat people through conflicting policies and programmes. He urged the people to understand the political intentions of the Congress in introducing these schemes. He said that the schemes were being introduced in a phased manner only with an eye on the impending elections. CPI-M leaders Y Venkateswara Rao and Ch Baburao were present at the media conference.