Uttam, Sridhar Babu refute charges of paddy procurement

The charges made by the BRS and BJP were baseless, says Uttam.

Hyderabad: Denying the charges leveled by BRS working president KT Rama Rao and also by the BJP against the Congress government in connection with the auction of procured paddy, Civil Supplies and Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Sunday claimed that the process was conducted with integrity.

Addressing a news conference at Gandhi Bhavan along with Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu and MLC T Jeevan Reddy, Uttam Kumar Reddy said the charges made by the BRS and BJP were baseless.

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Stating that the decision for auctioning paddy stocks held by the Civil supplies Corporation was taken by the previous BRS government, he said that when the BRS government called for tenders for auctioning paddy stocks, when they were four to five months old, the average price fetched was Rs.1700 per quintal. The new government could fetch an average price of Rs.2022 per quintal for paddy that was more than one year old, he said.

The fresh tenders helped in fetching an additional Rs.1110 crore for the government for the same paddy. Denying chagres of a scam of Rs.1000 crore, he said the value of the paddy lifted by the bidder was only Rs.200 crore.

Sridhar Babu asserted that if any industry sought to move out from Telangana to north Indian States including Gujarat either because of pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office or any other reason, the State would strive to make up for it by bringing in fresh investments.

Investment commitments worth Rs.9000 crore were received by the State after the WEF meet at Davos where the State had signed investment MOUs worth Rs.40,000 crore, he said.