BJP Demands Action Against Ex-IAS Officer Somesh Kumar

Former BJP MLA Raghunandan Rao today spoke to mediapersons at a press conference held at the BJP State office in the city.

He said that the Congress government was unwilling to take the right decision on many issues.

He claimed that although a lot of mistakes seemed to have been identified by the government, it was refraining from taking steps to fix them.

He said that retired IAS officer Somesh Kumar, who had served as Chief Secretary in the previous government, had been accused of registering 25 acres of land in the name of his wife, and wondered why the state government was not filing any case against him.

"He served as Chief Secretary and then as Chief Advisor to the previous BRS government. Why isn't the Congress government taking any action even though it appears that Somesh Kumar has benefited from the past government and registered properties in the name of his family members? If there are allegations against him of acquiring illegal assets in the name of Dharani, why is there no inquiry being conducted? In fact, there are allegations against multiple IAS officers who served in the State, including Rajat Kumar, Somesh Kumar, Arvind Kumar, Venkat Rami Reddy and many others. Why are the Congress leaders silent on the promise of conducting an inquiry and taking action against such officers once they came to power? And after all its criticism of the previous government's practice of appointing retired IAS officers to advisory posts, the Congress itself is again appointing IAS officers as MLCs and special advisors to the government all over again," he asked.

He also said that the High Court had clearly said that the land given to Hetero should be reviewed. "Why is the Congress government demurring from inquiries even though the previous BRS government looted public lands with false GOs? Lands worth thousands of crores of rupees were given to Hetero. Why is there no inquiry into the irregularities despite the government knowing that that was illegal?" he asked.

"When in opposition, the Congress had campaigned for a CBI inquiry into the irregularities of the BRS leaders. When it came to power, it forgot all about it. Can you make an enquiry into the Dharani lands records from 2014 onwards till you become CM," he asked CM Revanth Reddy, and demanded that a white paper be released after an inquiry into the land sold and allotted in the BRS government.

He also said that the Congress appeared to have come to power solely to benefit in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, and not to offer good governance to the State.