Mopidevi blames YSR for Vanpic deal

                                                                             

In a new twist to the controversy over Vanpic project, Excise Minister Mopidevi Venkata Ramana Rao on Thursday almost blamed former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy saying he had acted on his instructions and signed the relevant file in his office.

In his resignation letter sent to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, the Minister who held the portfolio of Ports and Infrastructure earlier asserted that he had neither taken a decision on his own on the Vodarevu and Nizampatnam Port and Industrial Corridor (Vanpic) project nor committed any wrong doing in signing the file.

Through the letter, he sought an independent inquiry into the whole affair to ensure that the Congress party continues to enjoy the support of the backward classes. “I want to prove my innocence lawfully and then return to public life and with your permission into the Cabinet. I have the confidence of achieving this”.

“As a person having faith in the party and the leadership, I merely followed the instruction of the then Chief Minister and went to his office after being summoned and signed the file in the presence of his secretary though it was not sent to my office,” he said.

Refuting the CBI's charge that he had erred in signing the GO 29 relating to Vanpic project, he said he had acted on the proposals made by officials and followed the orders of the Cabinet and the then Chief Minister. “If you, the media or anyone examines the note files and the GOs, you will know that there is no truth in the allegations made against me”.

He said he had not misused the opportunity given by the Congress party and everybody knew that he had been working hard for the last one month for the success of the party candidates in the by-elections in the Assembly constituencies falling in Guntur where the population of the Backward Class community was 50 per cent and large number of them hailed from his own fishermen community
from Hindu