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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Monday accused the previous Jagan Mohan Reddy government of looting natural resources, creating litigation, and exploiting lands and minerals in the state during his tenure.
He also claimed that forests were deforested under their administration. "We have identified records of their corruption," he stated. Naidu alleged that, across the state, a lot of urban lands were looted. Assigned lands were distributed to non-beneficiaries, and they had some modus operandi to loot these lands. He mentioned that Tollywood director Ramanaidu was granted land in Visakhapatnam during the TDP regime. After YSRCP came into power, they allegedly permitted the land to be converted from studio to residential use illegally at the district level. Additionally, lands belonging to Sarada Peetam were also looted. Earlier on July 9, the Andhra Pradesh government under Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu floated a whitepaper around its power sector where it discussed its status and raised allegations on its predecessor government under Jagan Mohan Reddy. As per the whitepaper, there was a phenomenal increase in the power tariff burden among consumers, the debt of state power utilities increased, and there were losses due to inefficient governance. Total loans of Andhra Pradesh power utilities increased from Rs 62,826 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 112,422 crore in 2023-24, with an increase of Rs 49,596 crore or a 79 percent increase. Further, the paper also alleged that investors lost confidence and the brand image of Andhra Pradesh was spoiled. The average tariff for domestic consumers increased from Rs. 3.87 per unit to Rs 5.63 per unit, a rise of 45 percent, during the Reddy government, the whitepaper noted. It also noted that a delay in the commissioning of thermal power plants resulted in a total additional burden of Rs 12,818 crore. It particularly mentioned the delay in the commissioning of the Polavaram Hydro Electric Project. A contract was awarded on December 6, 2017, with an expected commissioning date of May 2023. Later, according to the whitepaper, the contract was terminated and the commissioning date was revised to January 2026. Due to ongoing arbitration, the whitepaper asserted that it led to the expected loss of up to Rs 1,500 crore. The impact of price variation was Rs 350 crore. (ANI)
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