Hyderabad: Telangana excise minister Jupally Krishna Rao has rubbished the allegations being made by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) on excise principal secretary Syed Ali Murtaza Rizvi taking voluntary retirement from service.

Speaking with the media at Dr BR Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat on Thursday, October 23, Rao said that the senior bureaucrat was leaving because he was being offered Rs 10 lakh per month at the AIG Hospitals for a new role, and was also getting offers from a couple of private companies in Delhi.

He said that he did write a letter to the chief secretary seeking action against Rizvi, as the latter was not only being negligent towards his duties, but was also creating obstacles to the government’s works.

Talking about the issue of holograms on the liquor bottles and the allegations made by KTR that there was competition between chief minister A Revanth Reddy’s son-in-law and his son, Jupally said that it was all plain lies.

He said that as soon as BRS came to power, on July 1, 2014, the then government made an agreement with a company for providing the holograms till 2019, and then went on to extend that contract by giving it to the same company without calling for fresh tenders, but by giving the contract to that company on a nomination basis.

“It is Rs 40 crore contract per year. How can they give it on a nomination basis? I asked the same when I held review meetings with the excise officials twice. I asked them to identify the best technology for holograms and asked them to seek expression of interest from companies and to call for a tender. A committee was formed for that purpose, for which Rizvi was made the chairman,” Rao said.

He pointed out that he has written in writing five times to the principal secretary between August 13, 2024 and December 9, 2024, directing him to call for tenders for the contract.

“No meeting of the committee was held. He just kept delaying it. Finally a tender was called and 23-24 applications had come. Four to five months have passed, but still no company has come to give a presentation of its technology,” he noted.

Even with regard to the distilleries, Jupally said that Rizvi had suggested sending the files through the cabinet like what former chief minister KCR did.

“I asked him to fetch the files pertaining to what was the process followed in the BRS government, but he didn’t send,” Rao alleged.

Krishna Rao also claimed that by not extending the lease lines of the distilleries, the state government has lost revenues of Rs 230 in the last 10 months, because of Rizvi’s delay.

“The ministers are the executive heads of the particular departments, and the secretaries are the supporting staff. When there is a loss of revenue to the government, it is my duty to seek action. If I’m not taking action then they can question me. But here I’m trying to get the things done,” he said.

“With regard to liquor business, Kalvakuntla family has the patent rights,” he quipped, referring to KCR’s family.

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