Suspicions are being raised in the official circles over the bank guarantee provided by Telangana Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy’s company Raghava Constructions by a controversial West Indies Exim Bank in a contract work with the AP Government.
This company has received Rs. 800 crore worth of works from APSPDCL. As part of this, feeders and distribution network work has to be done in many areas including Nellore district. Raghava Constructions has given Rs. 80 crore bank guarantees from Eximbank of West Indies
Those guarantees have already expired on June 30 this year and they have asked to submit new guarantees. But, officials mentioned in the letter that guarantees should be submitted from a scheduled national bank. It may be recalled that Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy has been closely associated with former chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy and got many contracts from his government.
Hyderabad-based Raghava Construction Company’s submission of guarantees from a bank somewhere in the Caribbean raises many suspicions. It is ironic that the bank does not have a single branch in India. Headquartered in St. Lucia, West Indies.
The Euro Eximbank has been accused of many things. A firm in Madhya Pradesh has bagged a defense works contract. Before taking up the works, guarantees were submitted from this bank. Based on them, the officials assigned the tasks.
Finally, the company withdrew the request. Work is not completed. As a result, when the authorities wanted to seize the bank guarantees for compensation, the guarantees presented by them were found invalid. The bank claimed it was no way connected. With this, the defense department started a legal battle.
Lok Sabha member Karti Chidambaram has written a letter to Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das regarding the situation of bank guarantees given by Euro Eximbank in our country. Since when is the RBI giving permission for Eximbank operations in our country? Can you actually believe these? Do we have control over these?
A letter was written on 31st July this year about how the scope of these was specified. Government of Andhra Pradesh has received guarantees from this bank for over Rs 550 crore towards mining, power distribution, manufacturing companies and warehouses.