TD demands details of fund diversion in Siemens scam

Vijayawada: Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Telugu Desam MLA, Payyavula Kesav, on Wednesday said the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government is levelling baseless charges against the previous TD government, in relation to the Skill Development Project.

This follows reports that the state CID had probed the alleged scam during the Chandrababu Naidu term as chief minister and it claimed to have found that the related ill-gotten funds had been deposited in the accounts of some TD leaders.

"Can the CID give the details as to whose accounts the funds were deposited, when and from where? CM Jagan, who destroyed the Skill Development project and hurt the future of so many youths thereof, is now making baseless charges against the TD,” Kesav said.

“Also, if the Siemens organisation committed a mistake, how was the then-chief minister Chandrababu Naidu  responsible for that? The same Siemens had entered into agreements with six state governments before signing an MoU with the AP government. Are the chief ministers of all these six states similarly corrupt,” he asked the Jagan government.

Kesav said it was almost four years since Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power in AP. “Why did Jagan keep silent on this all these years?” Regarding the mention in the CID report that the chairman of the Siemens, Suman Bose, had extended pecuniary benefits to some politicians, Kesav asked, “In which way was it related to Chandrababu?”

“Siemens is a German-based company and it has its offices in over 160 countries. It was after learning that it was training the youth in Gujarat, and after studying its activities, Chandrababu signed the MoU with the company in good faith,” Kesav claimed.