Satyam scandal due to Cong rulers greediness: Chandrababu

HYDERABAD: TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday claimed that the Satyam scandal was due to "greediness and mania for money" of Congress rulers.

He told reporters that Maytas, promoted by former chairman of Satyam Computers B Ramalinga Raju, had grown into a big company in the real-estate sector due to the patronage of the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy government.

Greediness and mania for money are responsible for the Satyam fiasco, he said.

"Maytas was a small company in 2003 when I was the Chief Minister. But now it has grown manifold with the state government handing out multi-crore rupee projects on a platter," he said.

He wondered why YSR was "so interested in Maytas", saying projects worth over Rs 36,000 crore were awarded to the company without following due procedure.

"Nobody ever asked these types of favours during my tenure," he noted.

It was only to divert public attention from the large-scale corruption under the current dispensation that his name was being dragged into the Satyam scandal, he claimed.

"I promoted not only Ramalinga Raju but also other businessmen from the state. I took them abroad to seek foreign investments into the state. My only objective was to improve the state's industry," Naidu asserted.

He said that Andhra Pradesh's image has taken a severe beating because of the Satyam episode and wondered if any investor would come forward to invest in the state.