AP Oppn demands tainted minister's sack

Opposition parties, mainly the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), ruckus in the Andhra Pradesh  Assembly on Friday created ruckus demanding the sacking of excise minister Mopidevi Ramana, whose name was mentioned in the confession and remand report of Nunna Ramana, a liquor syndicate leader from Khammam district.

Ramana confessed that he had handed over Rs 10 lakh to the minister at his residence.

Tempers ran high in treasury and Opposition benches as both Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and opposition leader Nara Chandra Naidu tried to outdo each other in heaping abuses in chaste Telugu. The TDP demanded the government table the Anti–Corruption Bureau (ACB) report on the liquor scam which it says is bigger than the CWG and 2G scams.

“The scam is worth more than Rs 15,000 crore in which ministers, including Dharmana Prasada Rao, Kanna Laxmi Narayana, Mopidevi Ramana and even the chief minister has a share. ,” Naidu said. The BJP demanded a House committee enquiry and the MIM wanted a judicial enquiry.

The government in its report submitted to the House said that the ACB has raided 350 liquor depots in six districts, West Godavari, Srikakulam, Nellore, Visakhapatnam, Kha­mmam and Warangal and bail for at least 24 in those arrested was refused.  However the TDP demanded the government sack Mopidevi to pave the way for an impartial investigation.
“We found that page 7 in the remand report is missing. We believe that the page contained the names of all the ministers who had a share in the liquor scam,” Gali Muddu Krishnama Naidu, TDP floor leader, alleged.