Revanth Reddy: Forensic Audit of Dharani and ORR contracts must be done by Centre 

Hyderabad: Dharani is a major unfolding scam, alleged Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief A Revanth Reddy, claiming that public money was being transferred to a private company.

In a press conference held on Wednesday, Revanth Reddy, along with senior party leaders and vice president Mallu Ravi, Harkara Venugopal, Sangishetty Jagadish, Leaders Malreddy Ram Reddy, and Sudhir Reddy pointed out that the irregularities in Dharani are akin to acts of 'cyber criminals'.

Revanth Reddy blamed chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and municipal administration and urban development minister K T Rama Rao for the problems of the Dharani portal.

Dharani should have fetched money

The state government should have earned Rs 50,000 crore through estimated 25 lakh transactions after the introduction of Dharani. Revanth says, "The entire flow of funds is in Terra CIS Technologies Ltd based in Gurugram. Why? Who is Sridhar Raju? He is the master key to Dharani, and everyone is at his mercy now."

Revanth further alleged, "I spoke to officials, and they have claimed that Rs 40,000 cr were received by the government and only Rs 10,000 cr were pending. The Congress party demands an inquiry into this."

Land affairs to private company

The land affairs are now with a private company. Earlier Rs 150 crore contract was given by former secretary Somesh Kumar to IL&FS in 2020, claiming it was for software maintenance.

Later it came to our knowledge that the complete dealings of land are being done by the company, he alleged.

He says, "How can the chief minister KCR give the contract to a company which has already defrauded national banks to the tune of Rs 90,000 crores? The company has revealed it at the National Company Law Tribunal. How can the State government award a crucial contract for 70 lakh property holders to an unqualified company ?"

Involvement of Philippines based company

Revanth further explained that Terra CIS Technologies Ltd was established as a subsidiary of IL&FS. While IL&FS gave up its 52.6 % stakes to Philippines-based company Falcon SG Holding at Rs 1275 crore. "It is ironic that the company which was doing business of Rs 150 cr sold away its stakes at such a high price to an overseas company. Interestingly, Falcon was started just a month prior to the deal in 2021 and had no prior expertise. Later 99% of stakes were transferred to the same overseas-based company, reducing only 1% of stakes to IL&FS," he explained.

Failed experiment implemented in TS

In 2015, the CAG report was critical of the Odisha government's similar experiment with the same IL&FS.

"Finding fault with the Odisha government for conducting a similar experiment with the same company during 2010-2014, the CAG had pulled up the State government and asked why National Informatics Centre (NIC) was not considered. Why has he failed to learn from Odisha's experiment?" he asked.

Take up the issue with the Centre

A 'forensic audit' of Dharani is the need of the hour. How the state government benefitted must be found out. "I urge union minister G Kishan Reddy to take up the issue with CAG."

He urged that senior government officials like the chief secretary and others involved at the time of the contract must face 'criminal prosecution' under the Data Privacy Act.

"I shall file police complaints. If there is no progress, will go to court if no action is taken," he warned

ORR tender issue

Revanth Reddy says, "How can IAS officer Arvind Kumar place the legal notice in the public domain? Why was it released in the media? Why is he trying to belittle my image?

Special chief secretary MA&UD IAS Arvind Kumar allegedly sent him a legal notice in the public domain and not via a registered post. "Instead of answering questions on ORR, why is Arvind Kumar behaving like a politician?"

Angry with how the state government and officials treat members of Parliament and other Opposition leaders, Reddy stated that it is very unbecoming of them and will not be tolerated.