Telangana CM urges FM Nirmala to release Rs 1800 Cr for backward districts of state

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Friday urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to immediately release the pending grant of Rs. 1,800 crores to the backward districts of the state as per the AP Reorganization act.

Reddy, who met Nimala Sitharaman at her chambers in the Parliament in Delhi, discussed with the union minister the grant which is to be received from the Centre for the development of the backward districts and reminded the centre agreed to release a grant of Rs 450 crore to nine districts every year under the Reorganization act.

The CM appealed to the Finance minister to release the pending grant of Rs. 1,800 crore for the years – 2019-20, 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24.

He apprised the Union Minister of the management of High Court, Raj Bhavan, Lokayukta, State Human Rights Commission, Judicial Academy, and other public institutions in Hyderabad by the state government after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

The State government has already spent Rs. 703.43 crore for the management of the respective institutions until the completion of the division of the institutions. Reddy informed Nirmala that Andhra Pradesh owed Rs 408.49 crore as its share to the Telangana state.

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The Andhra Pradesh government agreed to pay the amount and the Union Home Ministry also wrote a letter to AP to pay the amount to Telangana. However, the Andhra Pradesh government did not clear the dues till date, he said.

The CM pleaded with the union minister to issue orders to AP for the payment of Rs 408.49 crore to Telangana with interest.

Reddy also brought to the notice of Nirmala Sitharaman the orders issued unilaterally by the union government for the recovery of Rs 2,547.07 crore as Telangana share from the loans borrowed as foreign financial assistance for the projects taken up in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.

He said that the Telangana government already registered a strong protest in this regard but the centre did not accept the plea to relieve Telangana from the payment burden and requested the Union Minister to review the matter again and take a proper decision.

The Chief Minister reminded that the Union government allocated all the funds related to Centrally Sponsored Schemes only to Andhra Pradesh in 2014-15.

Reddy told the Union Minister that out of that amount, Rs.495.20 crore has to be transferred from AP to Telangana on the basis of population in the Reorganization Act and appealed to intervene in the matter and release the funds due to Telangana.

The AP government did not respond positively despite the repeated requests to the Accountant General and Andhra Pradesh, the CM added.