Former Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s complete abuse of power was exposed by the officials probe into the amount spent during the previous regime towards Chief Minister’s family newspaper was an astonishing figure of Rs 650 crore in various forms. This was revealed by the Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu at the state cabinet’s meeting held on Wednesday.
It was found that the government has officially sanctioned money to the volunteers at the rate of Rs.200 per month for two years to subscribe to the Chief Minister’s newspaper, which is Rs.205 crores. Rs.440 crores were paid towards advertisements issued during this period to the newspaper.
It is known that the Chief Minister expressed his astonishment towards these payments. ‘How is power misused to benefit one person? Directing the volunteers to subscribe only to the newspaper run by the chief minister’s family and giving money to it on behalf of the government is definitely an abuse of power’, he said.
He wondered how he could give more money to his own newspaper than all the other newspapers combined? Are people empowered to promote their own businesses? “Let’s investigate how this happened… abuse of power or not,” he added.
Officials also said in the cabinet meeting that the term of employment of the village/ward volunteers appointed during the YCP regime had expired in August last year and it was not extended further. So. they cannot be paid from the government treasury without extension.
However, they have been giving for 9 months till May this year. Meanwhile, half of the 2.20 lakh volunteers resigned. “We have now put before the Cabinet a proposal to pay salaries for the months of June, July and August to those who have not done so,” said the concerned official.
Some ministers questioned how they will pay salaries to those who are not actually employed. That is why the official revealed that a proposal has been made to extend their jobs from August last year to this August. The Cabinet is of the opinion that some study has to be done on this and there is no need to take a decision now.
An opinion has been expressed that among the employees appointed in the village/ward secretariats, who are not needed there should be transferred to the relevant departments. The Cabinet has decided to name the vision plan for the state as Swarnandhra-47.
