VIJAYAWADA: YSRC leader Buggana Rajendranath Reddy on Friday alleged Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is pushing the state into a debt trap owing to his financial indiscipline.
Speaking to reporters in Hyderabad, Rajendranath Reddy said that during the past three-and-a-half-years, the public debt has increased by more than double.“On June 2, 2014, the debt of the new state of Andhra Pradesh was `96,000 crore and by August 2017, it swelled to `2.05 lakh crore,” he said.
He said that the figures were published by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which shows the State finances are being ill-managed and money is being spent for unproductive work.
Rajendranath Reddy said as on June 2, 2014, the undivided Andhra Pradesh had a debt of `1.66 lakh crore and the same was divided between the two sibling states in 42:58 ratio, with Andhra Pradesh getting 58 per cent share in debt based on the population, which was `96,000 crore. Now, it is `2.05 crore, which is a staggering amount of debt burdening the state, he pointed out.
He said the financial problem is due to lavish spending by Chandrababu Naidu over unproductive work. He said as per statistics, various governments borrowed `96,000 crore between 1956 and 2014 for the 13 district of the present Andhra Pradesh, while the Chandrababu Naidu government borrowed `1.09 lakh crore in the past three and half years, which shows the magnitude of financial indiscipline.
According to him, the assets versus liabilities ratio is alarming as for every `100 of liability, the assets have come down to `46, which is very alarming.
“It is not new for Chandrababu Naidu as he had done the same during his last stint as the Chief Minister. If not for the YS Rajasekhara Reddy government reversing the trend from 2004, the debt trap would have been much more severe,” he said.The YSRC leader said lavishness in expenditure incurred by Naidu on unproductive things, including building and renovations of temporary buildings and projects like Pattiseema and corrupt practices of the State government had led to the current financial mess. He said the measures only benefited a few contractors.
Speaking to mediapersons in Vijayawada, another YSRC leader Botsa Satyanarayana said the CM’s lies were being exposed by his own party leaders. He demanded the TDP chief to come out clean on the revelations made by party working president A Revanth Reddy.He demanded the TDP government to publish a white paper on Polavaram and Chandrababu Naidu’s foreign tours. He also advised the TDP government to focus more on the completion of the projects on hand, including Polavaram, and refrain from making baseless criticism of the Opposition. The YSRC leader wondered why Chandrababu Naidu is meeting only Telugu people in the US and not any foreign company representatives.