AP bifurcation: Assets and liabilities

There is no astonishing factor that the state government of Andhra Pradesh failed to bring back the property stolen by the foreign rulers. But, what makes us sweep away is their failure in bringing back the savings made by Nizam and his allies in London bank. No government of Andhra Pradesh ever bothered to bring back such huge savings. On the contrary, the debts shared from both common Madras state as well as Hyderabad state was jointly paid by the Andhra Pradesh government to the union government. All these issues turn to be the burning topics during the process of state bifurcation.

Way back to the history of Andhra Pradesh and its formation in 1956, Andhra Pradesh was formed with the merger of Andhra state and Hyderabad state on November 1, 1956. In realism, both the assets and debts are required to be distributed among the states based on existing rules and regulations. According to these existing rules, Andhra Pradesh was supposed to receive Rs 1.34cr, which was deposited in the Westminster bank in London by Nizam. The current value of these assets may even amount to many lakh crore of rupees. But based on the decision of the House of Lords, an appeal was made in the court regarding the disbursement of the deposits made by Nizam in the Bank of Westminster. As the said amount was supposed to be received by the state government, it has been included in the state assets and reflected in the ledger. Whereas the amount has neither been retrieved nor been utilized. According to the financial authorities, these assets have not been received by the government due to some sort of legal litigations.

Conversely, the state government has repaid the debt of Rs.41.41cr with the accumulated interest for a period of 20 years. The debts pertaining to the then Hyderabad state were owned by the central government and divided it among the three states emerged out from erstwhile Hyderabad state. An amount of Rs.41.41cr, which was the share of Andhra Pradesh, was repaid by Andhra Pradesh state government in April 1974 and January 1975 in two spells. In a similar vein, the debts have been received as a share of the then Andhra state inherited from erstwhile Madras state as on September 30 was divided among Tamil Nadu state and Andhra state. These debts have also been repaid by the Andhra Pradesh government.

Interestingly, due to the ongoing bifurcation of the state, the story of what will happen to the debts owned by the state of Andhra Pradesh as of now, which amounts to Rs. 1.79 lakh crore turns to be an interesting question.