The Congress government in Telangana led by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has made its intentions very clear on Wednesday when two significant developments emerged. Firstly, the Anti-Corruption Bureau booked Opposition leader and BRS working president KTR in the controversial ‘Formula E’ case as accused number A1. Within hours of this case, the Chief Minister himself announced in the assembly that a Special Investigation Team will be formed to probe into the alleged irregularities in the Outer Ring Road lease tenders.
It is a known fact that the BRS government awarded the operation and toll collection rights for the ORR to IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited for Rs 7,380 crore on a 30-year ‘toll-operate-transfer’ (ToT) basis.
The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), under Municipal Administration Minister K.T. Rama Rao, managed the tendering process. Allegation is that the tenders were approved bypassing the procedures for the benefit of some bigwigs in power at that time.
KTR’s cousin and BRS leader Harish Rao demanded the government to cancel the deal if any irregularities are found in the approval of tenders. After the Chief Minister announced that a detailed enquiry would be done by an independent SIT, Harish welcomed the move.
The BRS government under KCR took the decision to lease the ORR just before the 2023 elections. This led to a huge uproar in the political circles at that as the then Opposition Congress party alleged that ithe tenders were approved for a meagre sum that undervalues the potential of ORR.
KTR will have to come clean in both these high-profile cases which have been the centre of political war in Telangana between the two parties. He, however, remained undeterred and said he is ready to face any investigation.