Revanth asks Arvind Kumar to withdraw his legal notice

Hyderabad: TPCC president Revanth Reddy on Tuesday asked the principal secretary of municipal administration and urban development department and HMDA metropolitan commissioner Arvind Kumar to withdraw the legal notice issued to him by the commissioner on behalf of HMDA.

He warned that civil and criminal action would be taken against Arvind Kumar if he did not withdraw the legal notices given to him on May 25 in a matter related to ORR lease. Revanth through his advocate replied to the legal notice sent by Arvind Kumar in the ORR lease issue.

In his reply, he said that Arvind Kumar, being an IAS officer, was supposed to follow service rules about how an IAS officer should act and perform their responsibilities. But Arvind Kumar is acting as a politician without following those rules and not giving the information asked for, he alleged. “According to All India Services (Conduct) Rules 1968, an IAS officer should act neutrally without political motives. But Arvind Kumar is speaking on behalf of the ruling party. Half of Nehru ORR falls under Malkajigiri Parliament, which I represent as MP. Even though there is a possibility of getting a higher income, without thinking about it, the government's income has been compromised and the ORR toll collection tender has been awarded to IRB for 30 years for only Rs.7380 crores.

Moreover, all the rules were arbitrarily violated in the course of awarding the IRB tender. The HMDA Master Plan will end in 2031. If it is leased for 30 years and the master plan will change after 2031, it will cause problems. Moreover, no road in the country has been given more than 15-20 years. The National Highways of India (NHAI) has suggested that the tender period should be 15-20 years instead of a long period of 30 years. The tender was fixed for 30 years without even considering the objections of NHAI. Contrary to the rules, a retired officer was appointed in place of the IAS officer and the ORR tender process was completed. HMDA was replaced by HGCL (Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited) while the tender process continued. Moreover, there was no response from Arvind Kumar, whom we requested many times to disclose the base price related to the ORR tender,” he said.

He said that the traffic on ORR, the report of the assessors evaluating the value of the tender was also not being placed in the public domain and added that all this strengthens the suspicions that something had happened in the tendering process. He said that as a public representative, he has the responsibility to respond on the issue and added he was stopped and arrested without even seeing that he is a public representative by state police when he was going to find out the required information through RTI about the lease .

He alleged that without answering the information asked, Arvind Kumar was launching a counter-attack like a politician. Revanth Reddy claimed that all the allegations against him in the legal notice were false and added that the legal notice sent by Arvind Kumar was against the spirit of democracy. He said that the notice was given in order to suppress the ruling party's irregularities being questioned.

Revanth Reddy made it clear that he would continue to fight on behalf of the people even if he was given a notice.