AP Fibernet Chairman GV Reddy has accused the previous YSRCP government of illegally paying director Ram Gopal Varma. He said that the film Vayuham was telecast on Fibernet and Rs. 2.10 crore was illegally paid to Varma and the officials in the previous government acted in an arbitrary manner.
If the film Vayuham got 18 lakh views, he said that only Rs. 2 lakh should be paid. But GV Reddy said that Rs. 2.10 crore was given, ignoring the rules. GV Reddy deplored that APSFL (AP Fibernet) is currently on the verge of bankruptcy due to the way the previous government acted.
He reminded that the then CM Chandrababu Naidu had started APSFL in 2016 to provide internet services to the poor and middle class people in rural areas at low prices across the state. He said that there was a good response from the public to the fiber net. With this, 24,000 km of cable was laid by 2019 and 10 lakh connections were made.
Now, he said that the number of connections has come down by half to 5 lakh. He said that it is not even known what the MD and Chairman did in the previous government. He also said that the previous government harassed cable operators across the state. He made it clear that a probe will be conducted against the irregularities committed by the former Fibernet MD Madhusudhan and strict action will be taken.
He said that efforts will be made to increase Fibernet connections in the coming days and those who were selected illegally in the past regarding fiber net will be removed. At the same time, he said they will fill those vacancies with complete transparency.
Before 2019, during the TDP regime, there were 108 employees and Rs. 40 lakhs were paid for salaries. But, he said surprisingly, during the previous regime the number of employees reached 1360 with a monthly salary bill of Rs 4 crore. At the same time, he said that the connections had fallen from 10 lakh to 5 lakh, leaving a debt of Rs 1262 crore on Fibernet.