The Andhra Pradesh Lokayukta on August 7 accepted a complaint against former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for alleged misappropriation of government funds for political use. The complaint pertains to the former Chief Minister’s alleged misuse of Rs 12 crore of state funds for organising a one-day protest in Delhi in 2018 against the Centre for granting special status category to Andhra Pradesh.
The complaint was filed by AV Ramana, General Secretary for Andhra Pradesh wing of Janata dal (United). Speaking to TNM, Ramana said, “My complaint has been accepted. I was informed of the same this Friday, through a letter. The Lokayukta has asked six IAS officers to furnish a report to the Lokayukta by October 1.”
The complaint letter alleges that the then Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government held 15 programmes in districts and a one-day protest in Delhi using government money on February 2 2019. A special casual leave from February 9 to 13 was also granted to the state government employees to take part in the one-day Deeksha protest in Delhi.
The complaint letter alleges that the government released funds through several government orders for this purpose.
“This is a huge misuse of public funds by high-level public servants with the help of former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu. The allotment of special category status to AP state was made as an election promise by political parties," said Ramana in his complaint letter.
The complaint letter alleged that apart from the Rs 10 crore, smaller amounts were released from February 6, 2019 onwards to meet expenses for the one day-protest in Delhi. The funds released were reportedly utilized for arranging special trains for protestors from across the state to Delhi. The additional funds were also used to meet expenses related to setting up tents, accommodation and transport of over 3,000 persons who took part in the Delhi protest from the state.
The then Andhra Pradesh government, in a clarification, had claimed that only Rs 2 crore was spent on the protest and the remaining amount was for ‘other state functions’.
That one-day protest against the Modi government saw support from several political parties.