Centre's awareness campaign against graft an insult: TDP

>Reacting sharply to Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s statement that the Centre would launch an awareness campaign on corruption and black money, Telugu Desam Party politburo member Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on Monday said that the statement is an insult to the people who were genuinely agitating against graft.

>Talking to media persons at NTR Trust Bhavan, Mr Ramakrishunudu said that it is incredulous that the Centre wanted to create awareness about corruption when the agitationists were fighting against the ruling United Progressive Alliance government’s involvement in graft and black money.

>“The UPA government is itself involved in corruption and scams worth lakhs of rupees have been revealed during its tenure. How can the Centre create awareness about this? The Union Minister’s statement is nothing but an attempt to divert the attention of the people,” the TDP leader said.

>Mr Ramakrishnudu hinted that the proposed ‘awareness campaign’ is nothing but an attempt at a massive public relations campaign. He said, “What purpose will such an awareness campaign serve when the UPA is involved in the stashing of black money in foreign tax havens.”

>He also expressed solidarity to the anti-graft campaigns launched by various civil rights groups and demanded that the Prime Minister’s Office should be brought under the ambit of the Lok Pal Bill. He also appealed to Centre to elicit the views of all other regional parties before finalizing the draft of the Lok Pal bill.

>Criticising Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s statement that his government aimed to provide 80 lakh jobs by 2015, Mr Ramakrishnudu pointed out that the recruitments to the DSC qualified candidates was still not complete. “As many as four lakh vacancies are yet to be filled in various departments. The Chief Minister must first complete the task on hand and talk about generating more employment opportunities,” the TDP politburo member said.

>He also demanded that the government release a ‘white paper’ on the recruitments and vacancies in the state.

>Mr Ramakrishnudu also alleged that the Chief Minister had submitted ‘false reports’ to Planning Commission on the financial condition of the state.

>“The government is not even in a position to fill existing vacancies due to the financial condition. How can the Chief Minister gave a report to the Planning Commission that all is hunky dory in the state?” the TDP leader questioned.

>He asked Chief Minister to disclose the contents of his report to the Planning Commission to the media.