The Hindu : Owaisi puts his stamp on debate

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 25, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Owaisi puts his stamp on debate

By Our Special Correspondent

Hyderabad Sept. 24. The MIM floor leader, Asaduddin Owaisi, made a blistering attack on the Government with rare insights of the stamp paper scam, putting the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu and the Home Mi.nister, T. Devender Goud, on the defensive much to the delight of the Opposition.

Tempers ran high at one stage with Telugu Desam members rising to their feet protesting against Mr. Owaisi from whom details trickled out throwing fresh light on the racket and supplementing the charges already made by earlier speakers, even while their Opposition counterparts, barring those of the BJP, backed him vociferously. The Speaker, K. Pratibha Bharati, had to rush in twice, replacing her Deputy, K. Harishwara Reddy, and the Panel Speaker, M. V. Krishna Rao, in the Chair, to ensure order.

The MIM leader did not touch politics or other issues and straight went to the scam details and he stuck to his ground repeating "I am not yielding" as and when there was disturbance from TD members or Ministers. An angry Chief Minister advised him to come out with documentary evidence and then he would be able to take action "within two hours."

Mr. Owasi said Abdul Kareem Telgi had started his operations in the State from 1994 itself when he was caught by the Begum Bazar police along with others. A deputy police commissoner " detained" him in an A/C room of Rajdhani Hotel for payment of Rs. 1.5 crores. Later, the sections under which the original case was booked were "diluted" and as a result, the man was out on bail. He alleged that the Chief Minister "knew" the link of Krishna Yadav with the racket at that time itself but without blurting out anything for obvious reasons, he had removed him quietly from the Cabinet. Another revelation made by the MIM leader was that Krishna Yadav, as a Minister holding Labour portfolio then, spoke with Telgi right from his Secretariat chamber, using official phone and about this, there was evidence with the police, he said.

The MIM leader gave a jolt to the Home Minister charging that Telgi could easily obtain licence for doing the stamp business, adding that this pointed to the Revenue Minister at that time. To this, the Home Minister said nobody knew if Telgi possessed a licence and there was no need of having a licence for doing unauthorised stamps sales.

The MIM leader launched a tirade against IAS and IPS officers, saying many of them were corrupt to the core and if only the Chief Mnister allowed ACB cases against them without "stonewalling" as he was doing now, the Government would be in a position to get sufficient funds for all the developmental programmes instead of looking to the World Bank. On this count, the BJP leader, K. Haribabu, joined Mr. Owaisi, asking the Chief Minister to streamline IAS/IPS officers.

Mr. Owaisi also warned the Chief Minister against shielding other Ministers in the Cabinet facing cases, and removing only those belonging to Telangana region such as Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, S. Devaiah, and now Krishna Yadav.

Mr. Owaisi also made a scathing attack against the Government claims of "honest Government", citing several instances of "open corruption" in different districts as per a note given to the Chief Minister's office by the Home Department.

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