Hyderabad: Refuting the allegations levelled by Congress senior leader Jairam Ramesh, municipal minister K.T. Rama Rao on Tuesday demanded his accusers produce proof of his involvement in the purchases of vehicles by the TS police three years ago or apologise.
Mr Rama Rao told newsmen here: “These Congress leaders, who lost credibility among the public, are trying to corner the TRS government for the sake of publicity by levelling serious allegations and later backing down when anyone demands evidence.”
He said that the TRS government will be compelled to proceed legally against such leaders if they continue to level baseless allegations.
He said Congress leaders seems to have made it a policy of ‘loot, jhoot and scoot’. Refuting Mr Ramesh’ allegation that the TS police purchased Innova vehicles from one Himanshu Motors, a company owned by him, Mr Rama Rao said: ‘It was a fact that I owned a firm involved in tractor stockyard business. I wound up the business almost eight years ago, four years before the TRS came to power in 2014. How can a company that has been wound up sell vehicles to the police department?”
He added: “Probably, Jairam Ramesh has forgotten that purchases by the government of any should be made through DGSND at prices fixed by it. The last time the prices were fixed was when UPA was in power and Jairam was a Union minister.”
Referring to TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and others seeking his resignation over the Siricilla sand mining incident, Mr Rama Rao said, “Why should I resign? In fact, during Congress rule, revenue from sand mining was just Rs 10 crore for the entire state. After TRS came to power, we improved the revenue to Rs 600 crore in just three years. The allegation of atrocities against dalits is completely baseless.”
