Date:30/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/30/stories/2008103060390500.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

TDP faults YSR on corruption row

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: The TDP has found fault with the way Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy tackled the issue of SSI Minister G. Surya Rao levelling corruption charges against Panchayat Raj Minister J. C. Diwakar Reddy as if it was “a private panchayat between two individuals”.

At a press conference, TDP leader G. Butchaiah Choudary and TDP SC Cell leader Varla Ramaiah said the Chief Minister was solving it in an extra constitutional manner by calling and merely reprimanding them, forgetting that both were bound by a constitutional oath.

The best course was to dismiss the Panchayat Raj Minister and hold a judicial inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge not only on allegations of corruption against him but the entire Cabinet itself, they said.