The YSRCP leaders in the Jagan government have arbitrarily looted the ration rice that was supposed to be provided to the poor. They have colluded with the officials and pocketed crores of rupees of public money. After the coalition government came to power, those looters are emerging one by one.
Recently, an incident of rice disappearing from the godowns belonging to former minister Perni Nani came to light. In the same vein, it is said that more than 1300 bags have disappeared from the godowns belonging to relatives of former finance minister Buggana Rajendranath in Betanchala.
Civil Supplies Director Mahesh Naidu and Nandyal DM Raju Naik are conducting inspections to ascertain this figure. Officials say that the missing bags are recent, and if a thorough inquiry is made into the things that disappeared during the previous government’s tenure, corruption worth crores of rupees is likely to be uncovered.
In fact, there were no godowns related to civil supplies in Betanchala before 2019. Buggana’s own constituency, Don, used to receive PDS rice from Kurnool, Guntakal and Nandyal. When Buggana became a minister in the YSRCP government, he set up two buffer godowns in Betanchera to supply rice to MLS points in Pappili, Don and Banaganapalle.
One of these godowns was leased to SWC (State Warehousing Corporation), while the other was privately run by his relative and close friend. When the authorities inspected the godown belonging to SWC, 398 bags of rice were found to be missing. When they tried to inspect the private godown, its owners were unavailable.
There are criticisms that they rushed in because they had prior information from the authorities. However, it is reported that about 920 bags have disappeared from this private godown. It seems that the officials of the concerned department are trying to show that everything is in order by bringing rice bags from other places to keep this matter from coming out.
The rice in the 1300 bags that have disappeared currently weighs about 650 quintals. Considering that the government is collecting rice at Rs. 43 per kilo, the value of the rice that has disappeared from these godowns is about Rs. 50 lakhs. Although strict vigilance has been maintained after the coalition government came to power, there are suspicions that if rice is disappearing at this level, it must have happened on a larger scale during the previous YSRCP government.