The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Satyam affair: Narayana points the finger at YSR

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Satyam affair: Narayana points the finger at YSR

Staff Reporter

Chief Minister responsible for sale of 6,000 acres to it, he says

‘Government should now take over assets of troubled firm’
Ramalinga Raju should be treated like an ordinary criminal, he says

Kakinada: CPI State secretary K Narayana said Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was the ‘first accused’ in the Satyam Computers scandal as he was responsible for the purported sale of about 6,000 acres to it in the name of development of information technology and its subsidiary Maytas Infrastructure Limited for various projects.

The State Government has sanctioned big irrigation projects like Polavaram spillway works, Hyderabad Metro Rail, Machilipatnam seaport and certain highways to Maytas knowing fully well that it has little experience in executing such large projects.

It is thus clear that the government has gone overboard in helping Satyam build its empire at the cost of public exchequer.

But for the undue affection showered by the government on Satyam Computer Services Limited, its 50,000 plus employees, a huge number of investors and other stakeholders would not have become the victims of India’s biggest corporate fraud.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Mr. Narayana sought to know how the government could feign ignorance of the scandal which should have been detected by the Securities Exchange Board of India or Reserve Bank of India. It was also the onerous responsibility of chartered accountants to ensure that the people’s money was not siphoned off in such a blatant way.

The Government should now take over the assets of the troubled firm to compensate those who fell prey to its machinations and any further delay in doing so would do irreparable damage to all those connected with its illegal businesses.

Mr. Narayana said the government had given lands more than what is needed for software development and export operations of IT companies, in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam but never monitored the pattern of land use.

Companies across the spectrum were therefore encouraged to do real estate businesses.

The same is what is happening in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) where excess lands are given to dubious companies. The government would be inviting trouble by selling lands along the coastal belt in such a reckless manner as it is the sea route through which the terrorists sneaked into Mumbai and took a heavy toll of lives besides causing property loss running into several crores.

Mr. Narayana said the company’s ex-chairman B Ramalinga Raju has to be treated like an ordinary criminal and no privileges should be given to him in custody as what he did was a criminal act of gigantic proportions. Mr. Ramalinga Raju deserved a big punishment for creating a ‘social life crisis’ which has global ramifications.

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