106 govt employees in Siddipet suspended for attending BRS LS candidate meeting

Hyderabad: As many as 106 government employees in Siddipet district have been suspended for attending a meeting held by Medak Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Lok Sabha poll candidate P Venkatarami Reddy.

Siddipet district election officer (DEO) and collector M Manu Choudary suspended the employees for attending a BRS meeting in violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The meeting is said to have been secretly held by Venkatarami Reddy during an alleged cash distribution on April 7 night.

In a notice issued, the Siddipet DEO and collector suspended 106 staff members of the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) Siddipet (MGNREGS & SERP).

The 106 employees work in different wings of the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA). While 38 of them were working in the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), the remaining 68 were working in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

This came following a complaint by Medak BJP LS candidate M Raghunandan Rao to the Assistant Returning Officer and Revenue Divisional Officer over the phone that DRDA staff was attending a meeting of BRS in connection with ensuing Lok Sabha elections and that money was also being distributed.

According to the complainant, the BRS party was conducting a meeting without proper authorisation in violation of MCC in connection with the ensuing General Elections, at Reddy Function Hal, Siddipet, in which some of the DRDA staff was attending the said party meeting and money distribution was also going on.

Immediately, the flying squad team inspected the function hall and found 10-15 persons in the meeting and the team collected the CCTV footage from the hall management.

As per the CCTV footage, it was found that BRS party leaders conducted a meeting without obtaining valid permission from the assistant returning officer.

Further, a case of MCC violation was filed against Venkatarami Reddy. The case was registered following a complaint filed by the BJP and the Congress leaders to the Election Commission.