Congress questions idu about alleged irregularities

New Delhi, July 26: The Congress on Wednesday sought replies from NDA’s Vice Presidential candidate M. Venkaiah idu on the exemption given to his daughter’s NGO from paying various developmental charges amounting to Rs 2.46 crore to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority. Other questions pertain to the supply of vehicles by Harsha Toyota (owned by idu’s son Harshvardhan idu) to the Telanga government without any tender and that the former Union minister had allegedly secured 4.95 acres of land in Andhra Pradesh reserved for the poor and the destitute.

The party, questioning probity in public life as accountability and transparency, asked Prime Minister rendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah to come forward and reply in the context of the “repeated rhetoric of zero tolerance for corruption and wrongdoing”. “At least 48 hours have passed without any reply from either of them. As always, the Prime Minister and BJP President have chosen to keep mum,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a statement. “Replies given by the BJP’s Vice Presidential nominee as also in his defence by the TRS government of Telanga have left more questions than answers,” he added.

Asking a few questions of idu, the Congress said: “The Telanga government and idu have admitted that the ‘Swar Bharat Trust’ of his daughter Deepa Venkat was given exemption from paying developmental charges amounting to Rs 2,46,00,000 to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority.” “idu has sought to justify this unilateral waiver by saying that 16 more trusts were given exemption,” the party said. “What the Telanga government and idu did not tell, as to why similar exemption was not granted to hundreds of other NGOs by the government? What was the criteria for grant of exemption in payment of government charges of Rs 2.46 crore to her NGO in absence of any policy or ratiole?” Surjewala asked in a statement. “Is it not a fact that the ‘Swar Bharat Trust’ has been issued a notice under Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. Is it fair to grant exemption in payment of ‘public charges’ to a trust that is facing FCRA proceedings?,” he added.

Surjewala said: “As regards supply of vehicles by Harsha Toyota to Telanga government without any tender, the state government has accepted that 350 Toyota vehicles were purchased directly from Harsha Toyota.” “Interestingly, as per the government, the 350 vehicles purchased from Harsha Toyota were supposedly purchased under DGS&D rates, while the next lot of 350 vehicles were purchased through tender in which another dealer i.e. ‘Radha Krish Motors’ became a successful tenderer.” “Why were both the lots of vehicles not purchased through tender in the first instance? Was the conditiolity of tender violated in the purchase of first lot of vehicles from ‘Harsha Toyota’? What is the price at which the two lots of vehicles i.e. the first lot supplied by ‘Harsha Toyota’ and second lot supplied by ‘Radha Krish Motors’ were purchased? “Was the price of vehicles purchased from ‘Harsha Toyota’ higher than the vehicles purchased through tender from ‘Radha Krish Motors’?” he added. The party also said: “idu has admitted that he was the tiol BJP President and consequently the chairman of ‘Kushabhau Thakre Memorial Trust’, which was allocated 20 acres of land in Bhopal valued at a few hundred crores. “Is it not a fact that the Supreme Court quashed the allocation of land,” it asked. (IANS)