Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) on Tuesday, September 24, alleged that Indian Hume Pipe, the company which secured tenders for municipal department works worth Rs 1,137 crore, was pressurised to bid and then transferred 80% of the work to Shodha Constructions, owned by Srujan Reddy, brother-in-law of chief minister A Revanth Reddy, and another company.
In a brief note on the alleged Amruth tender scam, BRS reiterated its claim that Shodha Constructions lacked the qualifications to directly bid for the tenders as its annual revenue was only Rs 71 crore but was still given a joint venture share.
BRS stated that the scam came to light after Indian Hume Pipe, a publicly listed company, had to disclose information to SEBI.
BRS accused the chief minister of targeting high-revenue projects after assuming office, the reason why tenders worth approximately Rs 9,000 crore were invited for drinking water and sewerage projects in 26 municipalities, the process of which was concluded on February 6.
Alleging that the companies associated with Revanth Reddy were given the contracts through unethical means, BRS claimed that despite the completion of the tendering process for such large-scale projects, there was neither any press release issued by the state government nor any information related to those tenders published on any of the government’s official websites.
“The chief minister’s involvement in awarding tenders to his family members violates the Prevention of Corruption Act and is a punishable offence as per sections 7, 9, and 13 of the Act. Using office power to benefit family members violates the Office of Profit laws,” BRS alleged.
BRS reminded that similar allegations had led to the resignation of Congress MP Sonia Gandhi as the chairperson of the national advisory council in 2005, former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan’s resignation after the Adarsh Scam had surfaced, and Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s resignation after the illegal mining scam was exposed in the past.
BRS has resolved to take the alleged scam to the notice of the central vigilance commission, as the pink party suspects that Rs 9,000 crore tenders involved multiple subcontracts given to companies linked to Revanth Reddy’s family and associates.
