Jagan paying public money to advocates for personal cases, alleges Bonda Umamaheswara Rao

Amaravathi: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) politburo member Bonda Umamaheswara Rao said that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has been wasting public money on court cases to pay the advocates to argue his personal cases for the past three-and-half years.

Talking to the media at party office here on Tuesday, Bonda Umamaheswara Rao said that normally any State government engages private advocates and spends public money to argue cases either in High Courts or in Supreme Court for the interest of its own people like fighting for irrigation projects. But after Jagan came to power in the State, he is paying crores of rupees of public money to advocates to argue CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) cases pending against him or his family members, he alleged. These advocates are engaged even for petty cases and being paid huge amount as fee, which is public money, he added.

The TDP politburo member recalled that an NGO challenged the Green Tribunal order on Polavaram project before the Supreme Court and the State government has approached senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi. 'Since Abhishek could not take up the case, another senior advocate Venkataramaiah was engaged on war footing. Even the apex court was surprised at the style of the functioning of the State government, he said, adding that no other State government in the country engaged private advocates to argue government cases. Umamaheswara Rao said that private advocates appointed by Jagan have charged Rs 1 lakh per hour and the Supreme Court also directed the officials concerned to serve notices to the State seeking explanation for spending so much of public money this way. Even though HG and SC have pulled up the government several times, it hadn't learned any lessons till date, he observed.

Bonda Uma demanded that a white paper should be released on the number of cases the State government had won till date by engaging private advocates. Another senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi was engaged by paying a whooping amount of Rs 5 crone only to damage Amaravathi, he pointed out and asked what Advocate General Sriram and Additional Advocate General Sudhakar are doing.

The TDP strongly condemns the State government wasting public money, said Bonda Uma and asked as to why no senior advocate has been appointed to argue the State's rights mentioned in the Reorganisation Act. What happened to the assets that are due from the neighbouring Telangana State as per the Reorganisation Act and what cases were filed to fight for the rights of the State, he questioned.