The Andhra Pradesh Assembly Monday began the debate on the no-confidence motion moved by the main opposition Telugu Desam Party against 46-month-old Congress government headed by Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Initiating the debate on the motion, leader of opposition and TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu launched a scathing attack on the government saying it was steeped in corruption. He accused the government of corruption, nepotism and unabashed misuse of power and said the chief minister had no right to continue in office even for a minute. Naidu alleged that the government was encouraging looting of public properties by the ruling party leaders, undermining the democratic institutions and muzzling the voice of the opposition and media. The last four years of Congress government is marked by rampant corruption, favoritism and administrative inefficiency, he alleged. He alleged that the chief minister and ministers were involved in the ‘loot' of hundreds of crores under ‘Jalayagnam', the massive irrigation program launched by the government. Demanding a probe by the House committee, he claimed that the ministers had become sub-contractors to get the contracts worth Rs40,000 crore for irrigation projects. He said the chief minister's office had become the center of corruption with some officials running benami contract companies to get contracts for irrigation projects. The TDP president targeted Rajasekhara Reddy to say that he had become one of the richest persons in the world and was more powerful than the Congress president Sonia Gandhi. He said the family of the chief minister had an income of Rs26.59 lakh in 2003-04, which has now gone up to Rs.6 crore and claimed that he had interests in as many as 13 companies. “According to the income tax returns filed by the chief minister's family their income was Rs3.52 crore,” he said. Referring to the launch of Telugu daily ‘Sakshi' by the chief minister's son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, Naidu claimed that its sole aim was to target the opposition. “This newspaper was given the government advertisement from the first day in violation of rules and it is incurring a loss of Rs.1.7 crore every day,” he said. The budget session, which was to conclude on March 28, has been extended by three days to enable the House to take up the no confidence motion moved by TDP. Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy has allotted 19 hours for the debate. __
