Bamboo chicken
Connoisseurs swear by the aroma, tenderness and suppleness of the meat that has stewed in its own juices within the bamboo.
The retreat of the Maoists from the East Godavari Agency to the Andhra-odisha border, about 150km away, can mainly be attributed to bamboo chicken stalls flooding the area, says Kallu Srinivas, a local activist fighting for tribal rights.
Additional superintendent of police Rahul Dev Singh confirms that the Agency tracts have been completely free of the movements of armed squads of Maoists, but attributes this to police action, among other factors.
Maredumilli, located in the heart of East Godavari’s Agency area with Rampachodavaram as its Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) headquarters, has now become a picnic spot with bustling crowds, especially over the weekend, with the main draw being the chicken.
The dish, which was initially popular in the Araku area of Visakhapatnam Agency, was introduced by a Kondreddy tribal families that settled in the East Godavari Agency; they also introduced their own variation and spices. that a charge sheet has been filed in the case and that this could not have happened without the explicit approval of director Verma.
The senior government functionary mentioned in the first instance said even the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is dismayed at the fight between Asthana and Verma and that a message has been conveyed to both of them to back off.
“But it looks that both of them have reached at a point of no return,” this person added.
Interestingly, the tussle between Asthana and Verma comes at a time when the agency is slowly recovering from allegations of corruption against two of its former directors - AP Singh (2010-12) and Ranjit Singh (2012-14). The CBI itself is probing both cases.
“If there is little bit of truth in the reports (about the various issues between Verma and Asthana), it doesn’t augur well for the organisation and it impinges on its credibility in the eyes of general public,” said ML Sharma, former CBI special director who later became central information commissioner.
The genesis of the bickering between Verma and Asthana lies in the latter’s appointment.
In 2017, the director objected to Asthana’s appointment as special director in the agency by promoting him from the rank of additional director.
“Director Verma informed the Cvc-led panel that Asthana was under probe in the Sterling Biotech case. But the CVC panel rejected the contention of Verma and recommended Asthana’s name for promotion, which the government immediately cleared,” said an official familiar with the probe who asked not to be named. That was in October 2017.
The official added that Asthana’s defence was that he had rented out one of his premises to a Sterling Biotech group company and that the property and the rent received were both duly declared in his annual returns to the government. The CBI is yet to clear Asthana in the case.
On the basis of this, Asthana’s promotion was challenged in the Supreme Court by activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan, but the top court refused to intervene in the matter and cleared his appointment in November 2017.
The next round of fighting started when agency j oint director Rajiv Singh, a Tripura cadre IPS officer, was sent back to his parent state in May. He was heading the Bank Security and Fraud Unit of the agency entrusted with investigating several key cases, including diamond trader Nirav Modi’s. It was alleged by some officers close to Verma that Asthana had a role in his repatriation, a charge the latter has denied in private.
A few days later, Asthana was accused of leaking a draft probe report in the Aircel-maxis case. Officials in the agency claimed that a discrete probe was on against Asthana.
A CBI official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the status report Asthana is alleged to have leaked was “submitted to the Supreme Court in 2013 when Asthana was not even in CBI. He joined the agency three years later. Asthana wanted a formal denial of the media report in this regard from the agency but agency refused to issue any denial.”
Asthana then complained to the cabinet secretary in early September following which a CVC said it would institute a probe. Friday’s statement by CBI was a response to that.