YS Jagan Mohan Reddy using bankrupt company to loot Andhra Pradesh sand, alleges TDP

Mangalagiri: TDP national spokesperson Kommareddy Pattabhi on Sunday alleged that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was starting a wholesale business with the overall sand resources of Andhra Pradesh under the garb of a bankrupt company like JP Power Ventures.

He said that the JP Power company was incurring losses of over Rs 3,500 crore per year but the Jagan Reddy regime has allotted all the sand reaches in the State to it as part of a secret deal. With this, Jagan Reddy's personal wholesale business with AP resources has entered sand also along with liquor and cement.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, the TDP leader asserted that it was because of this limitless greed of Jagan Reddy that the industrialists and traders in the State were calling him as 'Wholesale Reddy.' This time, the Chief Minister unveiled a plan to plunder thousands of crores of rupees in the sand business as well from this year. The YSRCP government owed an explanation to the people whether the Chief Minister has vested interests in this sand deal or not.

Pattabhi said that Peddibhotla Gangadhara Sastry, who was a director of the JP Power Ventures, was the same person who worked in the Jagan co-accused Ayodhya Rami Reddy's Ramki company. Gangadhara Sastry has also worked as director in the Athena Power Ltd which Jagan once thought of buying. It was now clear that Jagan Reddy used Sastry to strike a 'quid pro quo' deal with the JP Power Ventures to loot AP sand.

The TDP leader said that the JP Power would be getting more than Rs 2,000 crore revenue per year which was why it was ready to pay Rs 765 crore to the government in the sand deal. Jagan Reddy was minting huge money in such business deals and using that money to win elections in an undemocratic manner. The people should think about the Chief Minister's atrocious deals as they were imposing unbearable burden on all sections of society.

Pattabhi deplored that the shifting of sand resources into the private hands would put an additional burden on people. The stage was now set for collecting Rs 450 per tonne of sand from the people. If people do not revolt against Jagan Reddy's mindless exploitation, the State would be sold in a wholesale deal sooner than later, he said.

The Chief Minsiter was playing dangerous games with the future of AP and its young generations.

Pattabhi recalled how the previous Naidu regime adopted a free sand policy in order to remove any burden on the common man. That helped in creating work opportunities for lakhs of construction workers. The Jagan artificial sand shortage claimed the lives of construction workers.

The irregularities in online sand policy led to people buying sand at Rs 9,000 per tractor load whereas, door delivery of a tractor load of sand was given at just Rs 1,500 during the TDP rule.