Nara Chandrababu Naidu is a No.1 Corruption King of Andhra - EtG

Chandrababu Naidu's four and half years (2014 - 2018) rule in Andhra Pradesh is marked by corruption, incompetence, untruthfulness, and undemocratic attitude. Thanks to Naidu's active support, corruption and extortion have peaked and reached colossal levels; so much so that even sand reaches and temple lands are not being spared. The only area in which Chandrababu Naidu has managed to achieve rapid growth is high volume corruption. His rule is replete with bribes, commissions, cuts, kickbacks, and all imaginable forms of wheeling and dealing. Indeed, Mr. Naidu has amassed more illicit wealth in these four and half years than all his previous ministerial stints put together.This rampant corruption was flagged by several organizations including the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCEAR), a prestigious think-tank based out of New Delhi, the Centre for Media Studies (CMS), another prestigious think-tank from the national capital, and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). The NCAER's State Investment Potential Index-2016 declared AP the number one corrupt state in the country. The CMS corruption study of 2017 ranked the state as the number two corrupt state. The CAG annual reports have been flaying Chandrababu Naidu's misrule, highlighting several instances of blatant corruption and lethargic governance delivery. The waterman of India, Rajendra Singh, in his recent visit to the state in October 2018, described the Amaravati scam as a bigger scam than the Rafael scam.

Chandrababu Naidu has then started a process called land pooling- which was supposed to be voluntary, but anything but voluntary, and taken thousands of acres of land from unsuspecting farmers. He then started gifting huge tracts of this land to his favorite companies- which were mostly from Singapore where the Ex. Chief Minister has considerable business interests- at lower rates to bag massive kickbacks. Under Babu's watch, the land records of more than one lakh acres have gone missing in the Vizag district. In the capital region, thousands of crores of rupees are being wasted on temporary buildings, which are being built with questionable quality by the Ex. CM's handpicked contractors. Sand mafia gangs are ruling the roost across the state.

Irrigation projects are overflowing with corruption. Flouting rules with impunity, Chandrababu is assigning contracts to his chosen companies on the 'nomination' basis. Contractors have been handed tailor-made GOs to facilitate corruption! Scoffing at EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) regulations, the Ex. Chief Minister has been generously dishing out cheques to his handpicked contractors, even when not needed, from the state coffers. The AP Reorganization Act has made it clear that the construction of the Polavaram project was the responsibility of the central government. Babu's handpicked contractors have been awarded contracts against kickbacks, while proxies front the project as sub-contractors.

In Chandrababu's rule, corruption is flowing openly from distilleries to wine shops, while venal deals on a scale unheard of are blackening AP's reputation in the purchase of coal. Even the temple lands have not been spared. Sadavarti lands in Tamil Nadu and the lands of the famous Kanakadurga temple in Vijayawada are being sold for a song, clearly after striking payoff deals.

During the tenure of the late Dr. Y.S. Rajashekhara Reddy, 80% work of the irrigation projects got completed. Chandrababu has proved to be so inefficient that the rest of the 20% of work is still unfinished, even after four and half years of time and Rs. 30,000 crore expenditure. Arogyasri program which has once made quality health care accessible to the poor and the middle-class now languishes in a comatose state.