A leaked diplomatic cable dispatched by the US Consul General in Chennai in 2007 had nailed the then government headed by Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in Andhra Pradesh for 'widespread corruption that was beyond the pale' even for India.
In the name of social programmes targeted at the common man, the YSR government had engaged in corruption 'beyond the norm for India', Wikileaks said, quoting the cable.
The YSR government’s 'flagship programmes' construction of irrigation projects and houses for weaker sections were beset with corruption even as Rajasekhara Reddy used the populist spending programmes to great political effect, the cablet said.
"There is consensus in Andhra Pradesh that irrigation and housing programmes are beset with corruption. On separate visits to Hyderabad, we heard allegations of widespread graft from several neutral observers.
An economist who studies the effectiveness of government programmes in the state said with only 'four to five companies executing the projects, there are many opportunities for graft in the irrigation programme',” the Consul General said in the cable.
"Typically, five to seven per cent is lost to corruption but in Reddy's irrigation programme, that figure is more like fifteen to twenty percent," he said.