I-T RaIds On MP cLOsE TO naIdU RaTTLE TdP
Ritwik Projects owned by Ramesh is in focus as its offices, staff are being grilled for violations and its bank accounts are being verified.
Afresh round of Income Tax (I-T) raids on ruling TDP Rajya Sabha MP C.M. Ramesh simultaneously at 20 places in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana this weekend has rattled the party leadership as he is considered to be close to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The raids commenced Friday morning and are likely to continue for a few more days, according to sources in the I-T department.
Ritwik Projects owned by Ramesh is in focus of I-T raids as its offices and staff being grilled for violations and its bank accounts are being verified. Ritwik Projects that deals with irrigation projects and public works is alleged to have amassed huge wealth after TDP came to power in AP in 2014. The company projected a turn of Rs 631 crore in 2015-16 crossed Rs 1,351 crore by 2016-17, said sources.
These I-T raids come close on the heels of the same last week on around a dozen business firms directly or indirectly linked to TDP leaders. However, compared to them, the ongoing raids on MP Ramesh seem to be widespread and bigger in scale as around 100 officers and 15 officials of the rank of commissioner in the department joined them.
Ramesh’s residence in Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad, his Ritwik Projects office in Sagar Society in Banjara Hills, his house at Kadapa and offices at Vijayawada in Andhra are being searched by the I-T officials. A team of officials are inspecting the accounts of Ritwik Projects at Allahabad Bank’s Sagar Society branch in Hyderabad.
Ramesh, who is presently in Delhi, termed the I-T raids as “nothing but political vendetta by Prime Minister Modi and his associates” against him. “I have given a notice to the CBDT (Central Board of Director Taxes) on 6 October, seeking the details of I-T raids conducted in Andhra since recently. Within three days, they raided my house and my businesses,” Ramesh told media persons from Delhi.
In his notice, Ramesh, a member of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, wanted to know from the CBDT on the total number of raids conducted by I-T department in the entire country this year and how many of them were targeted against political leaders. Ramesh’s letter to the CBDT was part of TDP’s plan to move the Supreme Court on the “political nature” of I-T raids.
Ramesh also said that he was targeted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government mainly because of his agitation for setting up a steel plant at Kadapa as part of the promise made in the AP Sate Reorganization Act at the time of the combined state bifurcation in 2014. “But, I will not be cowed down by these I-T raids and continue my fight against the Centre,” said Ramesh.
As Ramesh tried to link the I-T raids against his companies in Andhra, CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy visited his house in Delhi and expressed his solidarity with the TDP MP.
Reddy said that the Modi government was targeting Opposition-ruled states and leaders through I-T raids on the eve of the elections. TDP Minister N. Lokesh, son of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, too, denounced the raids.
There was also some fracas at the residence of Ramesh in Potladurthy in Kadapa district in Andhra as the local police formed a ring around his house and tried to prevent anyone going in it. The police almost demanded identity of I-T officials on the ground that there was chance of others too getting into the house in the name of the department.
From Delhi, Ramesh directed his office staff to ensure that those who enter the premises were really the officials of the I-T department and that they should be frisked to see that nothing was smuggled into his house so that they can frame him later. “These days, we cannot trust anyone,” he said. The MP refused to allow the officials from Telangana to be witnesses during the search operations.
However, sources in the I-T department told this newspaper that they had received definite information on the alleged violation in the accounts of Ritwik Projects and that of Ramesh in the last few years. The actual turnover of the company in the last three years was much more than that was shown in the returns filed.
The department had received tip-offs that Ritwik Projects had bagged dozens of big irrigation contracts from by the Chandrababu Naidu government in the last three years, purely on political considerations. Most of the projects bagged by the company were on “nomination” basis without following the due process of tenders. At least Rs 1,000 crore worth projects were handed over to the firm in this manner.
For instance, Ritwik Projects was given a work of Kuppam Branch canal repairs at Rs 522 crore, GaleruNagari project canal works Rs 1,000 crore, Guntakal canal works at Rs 172 crore, Gandikota project rehabilitation works Rs 106 crore, Srisailam Right Branch Canal works at rs 127 crore and Handri-Niva canal works at Rs 120 crore, all without following the tenders process, sources said.
Some of the works were left- over by the previous contractors who couldn’t finish them on various grounds. When the irrigation department re-allocated the works to Ritwik Projects, their value not only increased several folds, but also bypassed the proper tender process, said Topudurthy Prakash Reddy, a local YSR Congress leader who has been complaining about Ritwik projects violations.
Even BJP l eaders i n Andhra described TDP’s objections to the I-T raids as a “political drama” and questioned the need to oppose them. AP BJP unit president Kanna Lakshminarayana on Friday said that Ramesh and other TDP leaders should cooperate with the I-T officials if they had nothing to hide. “The TDP is trying to divert its misdeeds and violations,” said Lakshminarayana. Ahead of Assembly elections this year in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana, political parties have started taking the temple route, hoping that it will help them win elections. All the above mentioned states will go to polls between 12 November and 7 December and the results will be declared on 11 December.
Temple politics has taken hold, particularly in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, where, according to political observers, temples influence almost 30% of the total seats. Due to the influence of temples, political parties have started making “temple politics” their weapon. In Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the BJP has been in power for 15 years. In Rajasthan, BJP returned to power in 2013.
According to experts, in MP, out of total 230 Assembly constituencies, 10 influential temples of the state have “direct impact” on 109 seats. The temples that have major impact on the electorate of these 109 seats include Chaturbhuj temple (Orchha), Chintaman Ganesh temple (Ujjain), Devi Jagadambi temple ( Khajuraho), Gajanan Maharaj temple (Indore), Mahakal temple (Ujjain), and Vishwakarma Temple and Chitrakoot, among others.
Siddheshwar Shukla, scholar at the Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication, told The Sunday Guardian: “The temple plays an essential role in our daily life, it also shapes our social behaviour, and almost 10-15 temples of MP have great influence on the electorate residing in the respective areas. It is difficult to say whether the