The People’s Front in Telangana on Friday evening lashed out at caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in a joint press meet and alleged that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief had struck a deal with the BJP-led Centre to strike his name off a CBI chargesheet pertaining to the ESI scam. The scam took place when KCR was a Union Minister under the UPA government.
Alleging that KCR had given a contract in violation of the norms to one Y Satyanarayana, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters, “This is the reason for KCR’s tours to Delhi. To escape from this case KCR, used to meet the Prime Minister. KCR’s name was removed from the chargesheet. The case was filed during the UPA and he managed it in the tenure of the NDA.”
Reddy also took issue with KCR openly criticising UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, stating that the latter did not name him during her speech, but still managed to rattle the caretaker CM.
Speaking after Uttam, the TDP's Telangana chief, L. Ramana, alleged that KCR was also involved in the Sahara scam. Former CPI MP Aziz Pasha and TJS spokesperson Vidyadhar Reddy who were also present at the event.
They alleged that the scam forced Employee State Insurance Corporation to hand over construction of ESI hospitals to the then AP Fisheries Corporation instead of the National Building Construction Corporation, according to the due process.
In October 2015, the CBI questioned KCR in connection with the alleged irregularities, as he was the Union Labour minister under the UPA regime in 2006.
The work was related to construction and maintenance of ESI hospitals in three cities - Hyderabad, Vizag and Chennai.
Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) of India had started a probe in 2007-2008 into alleged substandard quality of work after which the CBI started an investigation.
Though the original contract was for Rs 19 crore, the substandard quality is estimated to have caused a loss of Rs 6 crore with the added trouble of another organisation having to start the work from scratch.
The CBI has also questioned Rao's private secretary, the then director general of ESIC and the then controller of finance in the past.
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