Uttam vows to punish anyone pushing State into debts

Hyderabad: Minister for Irrigation and Civil Supplies, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, assured to book the culprits who were responsible for misappropriation of funds related to Civil Supplies.

While responding to former minister T Harish Rao’s demand that the government investigate and those responsible be brought to justice during the short discussion on ‘White Paper’, Uttam Kumar asserted that the State government will not spare anyone responsible for pushing the Civil Supplies into thousands of crores of losses and placing the government into a debt trap.

He emphasised that bad debts have burdened the corporation with an annual interest rate of over Rs 3,000 crore. Approximately 95 lakh metric tonnes of paddy worth Rs 22,000 crore, belonging to the corporation, lie with millers without adequate security or bank guarantees. Accusing the previous BRS government of causing substantial losses and plunging the Civil Supplies Corporation into a massive debt trap, Uttam Kumar Reddy held that the corporation has accumulated debts exceeding Rs 56,000 crore and incurred losses of over Rs 11,000 crore due to the negligence of the previous government. He alleged that 70–75 per cent of the rice supplied to ration card holders, costing Rs 39 per kg, was either inedible or diverted for misuse due to poor quality. He attributed the present condition to systematic deficiencies left by the previous regime.

Despite significant spending, borrowed at high interest, on these projects, he declared that the new ayacut was negligible. He highlighted that despite investing around Rs one lakh crore in the Kaleshwaram project, the newly created ayacut is just about 1.5 lakh acres, with zero acre ayacut for Palamuru Rangareddy after spending Rs 25,000 crore and zero acre ayacut for Sitarama Sagar after spending Rs 7,500 crore.

Regarding the Medigadda incident, he attributed it to criminal negligence, stating that the poorly designed and built barrage collapsed on October 21, while the BRS was in power. He criticised the lack of response and rectification steps from the former chief minister, K Chandrashekar Rao. Uttam Kumar Reddy criticised the poor design and construction, noting it as the first instance of a barrage collapsing in independent India after substantial spending.