Hyderabad, February 16: In yet another veiled political move, transport minister Botsa Satyanarayana on Monday dashed off a letter to chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy seeking a direction to the industries department to rein in cement companies from forming a cartel to jack up prices.
This is not the first time that the minister has aired his views in the form of a letter to the chief minister. On Jan 29, he wrote two to the chief minister, one demanding release of funds for a socio-economic survey of the backward classes (BCs) to see whether they deserved enhanced reservation. In another letter the same day, he wanted the chief minister to take steps to include Kapus in the list of BCs.
Behind Satyanarayana’s badgering of the chief minister lies his intent to jostle aside Congress new boy K Chiranjeevi for the leadership of Kapu community. With signals in the air that Chiranjeevi is likely to be given an important position, Satyanarayana’s competitive instincts seem to have been triggered.
Satyanarayana has been frequently airing his discontent about one community getting the lion’s share of the cabinet posts in the Kiran Kumar Reddy regime.
–Agencies