Snubbing textiles minister P. Shankar Rao for not being aware of the relevant laws and for not giving enough powers to the body, the Andhra Pradesh Lokayukta has issued notices to the minister to furnish details of assets owned by him and his family, following a complaint by the minister himself.
He has been asked to furnish the details by September 19. The minister had written to the Lokayukta on Monday stating that it was one of the powerful institutions in the country. While referring to the Lokayukta’s investigation into irregularities in iron ore mining by YSR and his Cabinet colleagues in Karnataka, Mr Rao had urged the Lokayukta to also conduct inquiries into irregularities by several departments.
He asked the Lokayukta to probe his own assets before probing into the irregularities of others. In his orders faxed to the minister on Wednesday, the Lokayukta, Mr S. Anand Reddy, observed it appeared that Mr Shankar Rao was not aware of the differences between the powers of the Karnataka Lokayukta vis-à-vis the Andhra Pradesh Lokayukta under the respective state acts.
While the Lokayukta had proposed a number of amendments to the Lokayukta Act, such as bringing the ACB or the CID under its purview three years back, the state government had approved only a few of them about a month ago, which the authorities termed as insignificant.
The order stated the minister was one of the members of the Cabinet which had approved the limited amendments.
while rejecting most of the proposals. As for irregularities in the DGP’s office regarding the purchase of shoes (which Mr Rao wanted probed), the Lokayukta pointed out that it had tried the case suo motu when it had appeared in the press but had to close it as the Home Secretary had denied any irregularities.