` 350cr tax stolen

A series of CID probes ordered by the state government into various scams in the past three years, such as the Indiramma housing scam, CM relief fund scam, and Bodhan commercial taxes scam, have not resulted in any action against the guilty even though the investigations have revealed huge irregularities and siphoning off of thousands of crores of public money.

Soon after assuming office in June 2014, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, in his very first statement in the Telangana State Legislative Assembly, lashed out at the previous Telugu Desam and Congress governments for claiming to have built lakhs of houses for the poor since the 1980s, when they exist only on paper.

“If you have built lakhs of houses, why are there still lakhs of homeless people in the state waiting for houses? This shows those houses were built only on paper. The government will order a CID inquiry into the issue to detect how many houses were actually built. The government will not spare anyone, however big they may be if they are found to be involved in the scam,” Mr Rao had promised.

The CID began its probe in July 2014 and submitted the report to the government in November 2014. The CID had found that `250 crore had been siphoned off in 18 constituencies and the total amount of the scam was likely to run into thousands of crores.

In January 2016, the CID sought permission to widen the scope of its investigation and cover the remaining 100 constituencies. But there has been no response from the government, and the CID probe is thus at a standstill. In January 2015, the CM ordered a CID probe into the CMRF scam following reports that some hospitals and patients had claimed financial assistance by submitting fake medical bills.

The CID submitted a report within six months stating that out of 9,200 beneficiaries who were given financial assistance, 35 per cent were fake. The CID found that 25 hospitals in the city and districts were involved in the scam and questioned them. That investigation too was put on hold without citing any reasons.

Though some brokers were arrested, no official from any hospital or the CMRF department was touched. In February this year, the commercial taxes scam came to light in Bodhan. The CID inquiry ordered by the CM found that over `350 crore tax paid by traders was siphoned off by officials in the commercial taxes department who submitted fake challans.