Revisit the Image Towers agreement: demands Gudur

Hyderabad (RNI) Bharatiya Janata Party state executive committee member Gudur Narayana Reddy on Sunday demanded the state government to revisit the agreement being made by the previous BRS Government with the Salarpuria Sattva Group for construction of iconic Image Towers in Hyderabad. 
In a media statement he has requested the government to protect the interests of the state by revising the agreement.  He has also demanded the government to hold an inquiry into the issue. 
He has stated that the government is set to lose hundreds of crores of rupees if the present agreement is honored. It would make undue benefit to the concessionaire. 
Mr Reddy said that the previous BRS Government has entered into the agreement with the Sattva Group grossly compromising with the interests of the state. By giving the lion’s share to the concessionaire, the previous regime has flouted the norms being followed while entering into any development agreement. 
“In any development agreement the landlords ensure that they get at least 40 to 50 per cent of the revenue. But in this particular agreement the BRS Government has generously gifted 75 per cent of the benefit to the concessionaire for the reasons best known to it,” he said. 
He said that it was not clear why the government was so generous towards the group. Besides in the guise of developing infrastructure for a particular programme, the contractor was allowed to do business on a large scale. 
The BJP leader said that if the present agreement is not amended the objective of the government to develop Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) sector would be defeated. 
He said that if the media reports are any indication, it seems that the previous government was hand in glow with the contractor. He made it clear that the Information Technology minister and principal secretary of that department in the previous government should be made responsible for the loss making agreement. 
He said that as the BRS Government has allowed the increase in the construction area the cost of construction has almost doubled.  The construction area has increased to 16 lakh square feet and government would end up with mere 4 lakh square feet. 
He crticised that he could not understand why the previous BRS Government has agreed for a much less share even though the cost of construction for each square feet was low. The towers would be constructed with 20 floors and lot of constructed area would be available. 

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