The Enforcement Directorate will probe into the alleged irregularities committed in the Sheep Rearing Development Scheme, which was launched during the tenure of previous BRS government under K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The ED would be conducting investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), a state government agency, already has a probe underway and even arrested several officials including the former OSD to the then Animal Resources Development Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, an influential minister in Rao’s ministry and an MLA from Sanath Nagar in Hyderabad.
The joint director of ED zonal office in Hyderabad wrote a letter to the managing director of State Sheep and Goat Development Cooperative Federation that an investigation will be taken up by the agency under the PMLA. The letter asked for complete details about the scheme.
The ACB took up investigations due to allegations that there was a scam worth Rs 700 crore in connection with the purchase of sheep. But now the ED will look into the money laundering aspect of the case since the scam was linked to other states as well.
The ED has asked for complete details of the beneficiaries, the officials who handled the purchase or the funds that included the share of the beneficiaries as well as the involvement of sheep transporting companies and those who sold fodder for the scheme.
Sheep distribution was one of the flagship schemes of the BRS government under K Chandrasekhar Rao. There were quite a few complaints about corruption involving officials and middlemen. The Rs 3,500 crore scheme saw irregularities such as sheep not distributed among beneficiaries or the sheep being sold off by the beneficiaries but there was no crackdown till the government changed. The ACB had arrested some government officials of the animal husbandry department in connection with the scam.
Meanwhile, after the Lok Sabha polls, political analysts have predicted that the BRS might see more desertions and defections by the leaders, particularly MLAs. The BRS MLAs from Hyderabad, including Talasani Srinivas Yadav, had been mostly with the TDP before they switched parties after Rao came to power in Telangana.
A few days back BRS-turned-Congress MLA Danam Nagenderhad openly gave a call to the BRS MLAs to join the ruling party in the state since the BJP’s fortunes were sinking as evident from the results of Lok Sabha polls. However, the BJP too wants to woo the MLAs to join the saffron party in Telangana.