CAG Report findings: Oppn demands financial emergency

Vijayawada: Former finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on Saturday urged the Central government to impose 'financial emergency' in Andhra Pradesh to prevent the state government from pushing the state into an irretrievable financial crisis.

Ramakrishnudu emphasised on the need for invoking Article 360 of the Indian Constitution in AP immediately considering the 'extremely serious' nature of budgetary and financial violations being committed by the current regime.

Addressing a press conference here, he also demanded the Centre to order a CBI inquiry into the CAG comments of 'possible misappropriation' of Rs. 48,284 crore of public funds during 2020-`21. The CBI should also find out why the YSRCP government was unwilling to give clarifications sought by the statutory auditor four to five times.

The Opposition Leader in Legislative Council said that if the Central government doesn't not intervene now, the AP financial situation would slip into an irretrievable crisis in the near future beyond anybody's control. Going by the gross mismanagement, the state debt would touch Rs 8 lakh crore to Rs 9 lakh crore by 2024.

The TDP senior leader said in future, over Rs 31,000 crore would be required annually to repay interest and principal debt servicing. The YSRCP government had brought massive loans and resorted to such huge corruption that left AP into a total financial mess in just three years. If the same mismanagement continued for the remaining two years, nobody would be able to save AP from its severe financial crisis.

He slammed the Jagan Mohan Reddy government for not spending anything on development projects while the expenditure on welfare was also not in line with the ruling party's claims and promises. The YSRCP government had violated the norms of FRBM, treasury code, legislature and even the court judgements.

Expressing serious concern, Ramakrishnudu said the CAG report raised doubts whether the ruling party leaders had misused Rs 48,284 crore for which the state government was not able to show bills. During 2020-`21, the YSRCP government spent Rs 1.73 Lakh crore but failed to show proper bills for Rs 48,284 crore expenditure. Since the government was not clarifying to the CAG queries, it would be concluded that these massive unaccounted funds went into the pockets of the YCP leaders.

The TDP leader said the CBI should also find out at what level the treasury code violations were committed for mismanaging multi-crore funds. When thousands of crores of transactions were involved, the Chief Minister and the finance minister would also be involved. Unless the Centre takes control of the financial situation, AP would soon be bogged down in an irreparable crisis.

Meanwhile, state Congress working president N Tulasi Reddy, in a statement, also demanded that financial emergency be clamped in AP.

"This regime has been transgressing the Constitution in every step. The CAG clearly exposed that this government violated the Constitution of India and bypassed the Legislature in spending public money to the tune of Rs 1.10 lakh crore. This is a fit case for financial emergency," Reddy said.