Chandrababu, Emperor Of Corruption

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is now synonymous with corruption more than anything else. What has he achieved over the past four years?From the time that the state of Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated into the two Telugu speaking states, Chandrababu Naidu has only presided over pervasive corruption.

Chandrababu Naidu is now synonymous with bribes, kickbacks, sand mining, land grabbing, commissions and corruption under various names. For instance, under the AP Reorganisation Act, it was the Union government's responsibility to construct the Polavaram project.Why did the TDP government even try putting its fingers in the Polavaram pie? Corruption is the only word which comes to one's mind.

Chandrababu Naidu promised to build a world-class city in the form of Amaravati, but in reality, has given AP the mother of all scams, turning into a massive real estate scam. He revealed the precise location of the new capital well in advance to his select coterie and later set the rumour mills in motion through his choice media outlets saying that the capital would be located either in Nuzvid or the area around Nagarjuna University. What was the result of this propaganda blitz? The real estate value of land around Amaravati where the capital finally came to be located, fell steeply as people rushed to buy land around the Nagarjuna University area, as also Nuzvid.

In the interim, Chandrababu Naidu’s proxies, TDP ministers and MLAs, moved swiftly buying land around Amaravati. Who suffered in the bargain? The power finals of the region who used to get rich multi-crop harvest in this area.

On December 28, 2014, Amaravati was announced as the new capital. Chandrababu Naidu and his coterie ensured that all deceitful land purchases had been completed by then and the farmers of the region suffered huge losses, in the bargain. Who benefited from these deals? There are no prizes for guessing. Similarly, the Swiss challenge was a handy tool for Chandrababu Naidu to allocate thousands of acres to his favourite Singapore companies. However, the Swiss challenge method which was adopted in Amaravati was a distorted version of the procedure. Land acquired from gullible farmers in the name of ‘pooling’ was given at lower rates to favoured companies by the TDP leadership.

Land records pertaining to more than one lakh acres have gone ‘missing’ in Visakhapatnam. Sand mafia gangs rule the roost everywhere in Andhra Pradesh. In the capital region of Amaravati, thousands of crores of rupees are being wasted on temporary structures.

Irrigation projects in the Chandrababu Naidu regime, it has been pointed out, reek of corruption. Select companies have been given tailor-made GOs throwing all norms and regulations to the winds.

As per the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act, it was clearly the responsibility of the Union government to construct the Polavaram project. However, Chandrababu Naidu, saw a money spinner in the project and took it into the state government’s hands. What was the result? The estimated cost of the Polavaram project rose from Rs.16,010 crores to Rs.40,352 crores to finally stand at Rs.58,319.06 crores!

A thorough investigation into the contractors, kickbacks and sub-contractors will unmask the identities of the real players behind this project, and the massive scam underlying it.

The Sadavarti lands (Tamil Nadu) scam reveals another frightening aspect of the Chandrababu Naidu regime. It points to the fact that even temple lands are not spared in his rule. A probe will reveal the faces behind the sale belonging to Kanakadurga temple in Vijayawada.

Arogyasri, Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy's pioneering healthcare initiative, which put Andhra Pradesh among front-ranking states in healthcare, is now languishing on account of government insensitivity and indifference. The poor no longer have access to good healthcare facilities, as was the case during Dr YSR rule. On the contrary, under Chandrababu Naidu’s government the poor are being told by hospitals in Hyderabad and elsewhere, that treatment would not be provided to them because Arogyasri is not extended to Telangana, Karnataka or Tamil Nadu. 108 ambulance services have been badly hit with very few vehicles in proper condition and most of them are lacking in essential equipment and medicines. Staff complain that their salaries are not being paid on time. The same is true of 104 services.

The scope of the fee reimbursement scheme has been narrowed down and yet, students do not get proper reimbursement of fees on time. As a result, students find pursuing higher education a major challenge. Perhaps, among the biggest betrayals made by Chandrababu Naidu are those of loan waivers to farmers and DWCRA groups. Farmers have become defaulters for no fault of theirs because the government did not pay even a third of the interest to banks. The farmers are therefore, trapped in a Catch-22 situation because they cannot go to banks now as fresh loans are being denied to them, nor can they afford to repay the previous loans which the government had promised to waive.

What happened to Chandrababu Naidu’s election promise of a monthly unemployment allowance? Has he been able to fulfil his promise of a job for every household? The answers to these questions are known to all. Electricity has become a burden on low income groups and the poor get exhorbitant bills to their shock and disbelief.

Democratic norms have gone for a toss under Chandrababu Naidu. Elected Sarpanches are ignored completely and Janmabhoomi committees function as extra-constitutional power centres in village after village across Andhra Pradesh. Development funds are released to constituencies represented by TDP MLAs while constituencies which had elected MLAs from YSRCP are denied funds! This is virtually unheard of. The worst aspect of it all is that Chandrababu Naidu is using his ill gotten wealth to buy MLAs from YSRCP and he has even made four of the 23 turncoat legislators, ministers in this cabinet. There is little doubt that this TDP government led by Chandrababu Naidu will go down in history as perhaps the most corrupt regime Andhra Pradesh has ever seen.