Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders have been accusing that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has been collecting `R Tax’ from Telangana real estate promoters, contractors and others for the sake of Congress high- command to meet election expenses.
Quoting a specific instance, BJP Legislature Party leader A Maheshwar Reddy accused Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy of handing over Rs.100 crore collected through kickbacks from rice millers to Congress high command as election fund.
Referring large scale irregularities in paddy procurement, he alleged that paddy worth Rs. 1600 crore were sold without receipts and that Uttam Kumar Reddy and Civil Supplies department officials received a kickback of Rs.500 crore, out of which Rs.100 crore was handed over to Congress general secretary KC Venugopal as election funds recently.
He recalled that Uttam Kumar Reddy has been in the Chief Minister’s race since the last assembly elections and he has given a tough competition to Revanth Reddy in this regard. Referring to speculations over discontent over Revanth leadership within Congress and attempts to dislodge him after Lok Sabha elections, BJP leader said that Uttam is continuing his lobbying in New Delhi.
Accusing the government of allowing rice millers to collect 10 to 12 Kgs of paddy per quintal excess from farmers, he alleged that crores of rupees had changed hands through the illegal sale of paddy. “About 1.30 lakh metric tonnes of paddy is being procured by the State government annually and if 10 percent excess is being collected by the millers it comes to 13,000 MT. You can imagine how much money has changed hands,”he added.