HYDERABAD: After the son, it is the son-in-law, Embarrassment comes to Prime Minister Narasimha Rao now from a son-in-law, N. Venkat Kishan Rao. The favors bestowed on a firm of his by the Railways have come to light just when Prabhakar Rao’s Goldstar is in national focus.
The story of this firm, V.S.Engineering, will only blacken the clouds of suspicion already thrown up in Parliament and outside by Goldstar whose various deals are being probed by a Joint Parliamentary Committee and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
When Narsimha Rao became Prime Minister, Kishan Rao changed his vocation. An agriculturist all his life, Kishan Rao suddenly switched over to civil works contract, and quite successfully so. There was the South Central Railway to do him a good turn, not given to others. It turned over as Rs 7 crore sleeper contract to his newly setup firm without so much as calling for bids.
It was a dormant contract given on finally to Rayalaseema Sleepers. Kishan Rao was lucky to get it reassigned to him under a tripartite agreement. Kishan Rao for his company, S.S.Patil forthe original contractor and V Gopalakrishnan, Chief Track Engineer (SCR) for the President of India signed the agreement on July 10,1992. All were evidently happy.
The reassignment involved a major favor; a change in the location of the sleeper factory. Chintakani in Khamman Distnet had been first chosen as the site for the factory but the first contractor found it unsuitable. The prayer for change was not accepted by the super bosses of the South Central Railway: until the Prime Minister’s son-in-law was on the scene, The factory will now be relocated at Nallapadu near Guntur.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 2, 1993
