AP govt clears air over CM Naidu’s Davos visit

Amaravati: Clearing air over the controversy surrounding recent visit of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to Davos for the World Economic Forum, the office of state government’s communications advisor today issued letters claiming that the CM was indeed “invited” for the annual event in Switzerland.

The communications advisor s office also released a letter sent by World Economic Forum (WEF) managing board member Philipp Rosler “inviting” Naidu for the conference.

It released a few other papers claiming that the Chief Minister was participant in some of the sessions at WEF.

“The news in circulation in some quarters that the CM was not a special invitee at Davos and that his name did not figure in the list of speakers is false and amounts to false propaganda,” the communications advisor s office said.

Opposition parties had dubbed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s recent trip to Davos as a “publicity stunt” and alleged that he was not an invitee to the event but a paid delegate. They had demanded that the CM give an explanation to the people in this regard.

State Congress vice-president Nadendla Manohar wrote a letter to Chief Minister today demanding that the latter gave an explanation to the people on Davos trip for which the government spent over Rs 7.27 crore.

“Your trip leaves a lot of suspicion that you are spending crores of rupees of public money just to garner publicity.

“You sought to make people believe that your annual trips to Davos were bringing in crores of rupees as investment into the state.

“But in reality nothing has happened,” Manohar pointed out in the letter.

YSR Congress spokesman Ambati Rambabu alleged that the Chief Minister was not an invitee to the annual WEF conference but attended it by paying USD 3.2 lakh as a delegate.