Congress Alleges Scam In Telangana Martyrs Memorial

Alleging a huge scam in the construction of the Telangana Martyrs' Memorial, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & MP Revanth Reddy on Saturday demanded a high-level enquiry to find if Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his family were involved in the embezzlement of public money.

Accompanied by AICC spokesperson Dr Dasoju Sravan and other senior leaders, the TPCC chief visited the site of the martyrs' memorial to check the status of the construction.

Speaking to media persons later, he alleged that KCR had escalated the cost of the memorial from Rs 80 crore to Rs 180 crore, and had also assigned the works to an Andhra contractor, KPC Project Limited where KPC stood for Kamishetti Pullaiah Company, owned by Poddtur Shetty of Andhra who had no experience and had got the tender based on false certificates.

"KCR had accused Andhra contractors of robbing Telangana. But now KCR himself is assigning all big projects to Andhra contractors to get huge commissions," Reddy said, adding that a DNA test needed to be conducted on KCR to ascertain whether he genuinely belonged to Telangana.

KCR had also earmarked 6% of the total cost as consultants' fees, Reddy said.

All of these showed how much the KCR government had indulged in corruption in the name of the Telangana martyrs, Reddy claimed.

Reddy also said that as per the original agreement and the extension given later, the construction should have been completed by December 31 of this year. But as of today not even 50% of the construction had been completed, despite Rs 110 crore being spent already, and there was no clarity on when the memorial would be ready for opening, he lamented.

He asked the TRS government to explain the reasons for the delay in the execution of the project, and why the works were assigned to an Andhra contractor.

He alleged that minister K T Rama Rao and his friend Sridhar Ray were behind the huge scam in the construction of the martyrs' memorial, and demanded a high-level probe into the "scam".

He also gave a call for a social boycott of the KCR family for swindling money in the name of the Telangana martyrs.

Dr Dasoju Sravan slammed the TRS government for "completely neglecting the welfare of the Telangana martyrs' families". As against to over 1,200 martyrs, a few benefits were extended to just 500 families, he claimed, and accused KCR of disrespecting the martyrs by treating members of their families like beggars.