Crores of Cash - in Andhra Pradesh !!

How much of money is big money ! – and how much of Cash have you handled at a single instance ?

 

The Godavari is India's second longest river after the holy Ganges and drains the third largest basin in India, covering about 10% of India's total geographical area.  The river originates at Trimbakeshwar, Nashik, Maharashtra,  flows east for 1,465 kilometres (910 mi), draining the states of Maharashtra (48.6%), Telangana (18.8%), Andhra Pradesh (4.5%), Chhattisgarh (10.9%) and Odisha (5.7%). The river ultimately empties into the Bay of Bengal through an extensive network of distributaries.  The bridges across Godavari at Rajamahendrapuram (Rajahmundry) are really lengthy ! 

We have seen stash of currency notes only in films.  In Mani Rathnam’s ‘Thiruda Thiruda’ it was freshly printed bank notes of incredible 10 billion value in container lorry and the money trail by a group that formed the main storyline.   In Sankar’s  ‘Sivaji, the Boss’ the story line was black money…. In the long climax, Sivaji fights the villain in the terrace of his medical college ~ and unravels hard currency notes stashed below the tiles………. !! …. Currency notes fly everywhere and the students start collecting them stating it was the black money paid by them for begetting seats…….in the melee, the villain gets killed in the stampede. 

The district, like the rest of the Deccan, was under the Nandas and Mauryas in its early history. After the fall of the Mauryan Empire, the district was under the Satavahanas until the 3rd century under the famous poet king Haala. Gupta emperor Samudragupta invaded during the rule of both Pishtapura and Avamukta in the district in 350 AD.  Samudragupta's invasion was followed by the rule of the Mathara dynasty from 375 to 500. The earliest known ruler of the dynasty was Saktivarman.  The Pulakesi II of Badami Chalukyas and his brother Kubja Vishnu Vardhana acquired Pishtapura in the 7th century. 

East Godavari is a district in the Coastal Andhra region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Its district headquarters is at Rajamahendravaram. In the Madras Presidency, the District of Rajamahendravaram was created in 1823.  It was reorganised in 1859 and was bifurcated into Godavari and Krishna districts. During British rule, Rajamahendravaram was the headquarters of Godavari District, which was further bifurcated into East Godavari and West Godavari districts in 1925. When the Godavari district was divided, Kakinada became the headquarters of East Godavari and Eluru became headquarters of West Godavari.  Recently in Apr 2022 the East Godavari again was divided in two - Kakinada and East Godavari.  

Godavari is in news for wrong reasons.  In yet another pre-poll cash haul in Andhra Pradesh, police in East Godavari seized Indian currency valued at Rs 7 crore, stuffed in seven boxes from a commercial vehicle. The seizure was made after the vehicle the cash was being ferried from overturned as it was hit by a lorry at Anantapally in Nallajarla mandal. Locals noticed that as many as seven cardboard boxes of cash were being moved from one sack to another in that vehicle and informed the police. The amount seized is reported to be around Rs.7 crore. 

India Today and other media reports that the incident took place while the vehicle was en route to Visakhapatnam from Vijayawada. The driver of the overturned vehicle sustained injuries and was shifted to Gopalapuram Hospital for treatment.  Police have launched an investigation and are trying to ascertain the source of the cash.  This comes just two days after unaccounted cash worth Rs 8 crore was seized from a truck at a checkpost in the state's NTR district on Thursday. The police detained two people in connection to the cash seizure. The cash was hidden in a secret compartment of the pipe-loaded truck. This is the second big cash haul seizure in the state ahead of the May 13 polls. 

Money flows and there is so much of unaccounted money with politicians still!

 
With regards – S Sampathkumar
11.5.2024