Hyderabad: The Telangana Congress on Thursday demanded that finance minister Etela Rajender resign for allegdly favouring his brother-in-law L. Venka-tarami Reddy’s reappointment as head of the horticulture department and getting promotion after retirement.
TPCC spokesperson Konagala Mahesh told mediapersons that Mr Venkatarami Reddy had retired as additional director in the horticulture department on November 30 last. He alleged that Mr Rajender had influenced Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to promote him as director and reappointed him for three years as the HoD. This, Mr Mahesh said, was against the norms applied for non-IAS cadre officials.
Mr Mahesh said the finance department had earlier advised against reappointment of officers. The finance minister had himself violated the orders, and ensured that GO 57 was issued to favour his brother-in-law when he retired, Mr Mahesh claimed.
Mr Mahesh demanded that Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan should examine the issue and take st-eps to cancel the reappointment of the official.
Otherwise the Congress would approach the court to get the orders annulled.
He said that there was a conspiracy hatched by Mr Rao and Mr Rajender to misuse Rs 1,200 crore granted by NABARD for taking up horticulture and allied works in the state with the cooperation of the official.
