TD leaders involved in Siemens skill development scam, asserts finance minister
VIJAYAWADA: Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy has termed the state government’s Dashboard during the Telugu Desam period as "Dash-Dash" and alleged that the “robbed money” in the Siemens scam under the TD rule had been siphoned off to foreign countries.
Participating in a discussion on the Skill Development scam during the time when Chandrababu Naidu headed the last government, the minister recalled that an agreement had been signed by the Naidu government with the Siemens company. “TD was involved in the scam,” the minister asserted.
The finance minister said that the ED and state CID have arrested many people in connection with the Skill Development scam and added that more arrests will be made in this context soon.
Rajendranath said Illendula Ramesh and Soumyadri Shekhar Bose from Medak district and Vikas Kanilwal of Design Tech made the PPT proposals and did presentations with the then chief minister Chandrababu Babu for Siemens Software. “Generally, government works will be allotted through a tender process. But, the previous government gave Rs 371 crore to a company through the nomination process.”
He explained that though there were many companies, the TD government chose Siemens and “looted Rs 371 crore” in the Skill Development scam.
The minister said the scam took place just two or three months after the TD came to power in 2014. “With Chandrababu having his people in the Skill Development Corporation, the then cabinet approved the proposal on this as a Special Item based on a single note, and the Chandrababu-led govt approved RS 3356 crore for this project.”
Rajendranath said the money was released without the government receiving a single penny from Siemens. “However, finance department officials objected to the releasing of the money. Chandrababu himself intervened to release the funds and then money laundering was done through shell companies,” he said.
