KCR seeking Rs 4,000 cr kickbacks from AP rice mills to fund polls: Arvind

The BJP on Monday alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao unveiled a new scam to earn kickbacks of around Rs 4,000 crore from auctioning paddy in the state.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Nizamabad, Arvind Dharmapuri told reports that the government is gearing up to auction around 1 crore tonnes of rice and placed impossible conditions which cannot be met by the around 2,500 custom rice mills in Telangana.

“The guidelines for the auction include that the bidder must have a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore and recorded profits of Rs 100 crore. These conditions cannot be met by the 2,500 rice millers in Telangana. It is only a handful of large rice mill owners from Andhra Pradesh who can do sso. Telangana rice millers will never recover from this blow,” he said.

“The brains behind such a plan must have been KTR. The government must answer why it hatched this plan. It should revise the auction conditions to allow Telangana rice millers to take part as they are ready to purchase the paddy, including that damaged in rains due to delayed procurement by the government, at minimum support price,” he said.

Arvind said he had information that backdoor deals were struck with some larger millers from Andhra Pradesh who are expected to bid for the paddy at Rs 4 to Rs 5 less than the MSP for each quintal. ‘From the money saved by the buyers, KCR plans to siphon off around Rs 4,000 crore in kickbacks to fund BRS candidates in the coming Assembly elections,” Arvind said.

“The Chief Minister is planning to fund each of his BRS candidates to the tune of around Rs 40 crore for poll expenses,” he added.

The Nizamabad MP also demanded that BRS MLC K Kavitha explain why her father’s government was out to destroy Telangana rice millers, adding that she will be placed third if she contests from Nizamabad in the Lok Sabha elections.

This article has been republished from The Deccan Chronicle