Director of Mines and Geology V.G. Venkata Reddy has strongly denied the allegation made by the TDP that massive irregularities took place in sand mining tenders and said it was politically motivated.
He stated in a press release that the changes in package reserve prices were due to their redistribution in the districts and maintained that the tender process was transparent as it was handled by MSTC, a central government agency.
He said the charge that the reserve price has been reduced was meaningless since the price fixed for three packages in 2021 was ₹1,510 crore, which was revised upward to ₹1,529 crore in the latest tenders.
The performance security deposit in 2021 was ₹120 crore but in the latest tenders, it was ₹153 crore, which means that the government got ₹33 crore more than last time.
Mr. Venkata Reddy said the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle was an internal matter of the bidders and only they were liable to the government.
Tenders were called for three packages on October 7 fixing the cumulative reserve price at ₹1,529 crore. The allegation that the reserve price decided for Package 2 was lower than the one decided in 2021 was false. The reserve price for Package-1 was finalised at ₹470 crore in 2021 but was recently raised to ₹533 crore.
The reserve price for Package 2 was ₹740 crore in 2021 but reduced to ₹691 crore. The reserve price for Package-3 was ₹300 crore in 2021 and it was revised to ₹306 crore.
While clarifying other issues raised by the TDP leaders in their letters to the CBI and Central Vigilance Commission, Mr. Venkata Reddy said the new sand policy was generating an annual revenue of ₹765 crore to the government.
