AMARAVATI: The Telugu Desam Party on Saturday asked the Centre to invoke Article 360 of the Constitution and clamp “financial emergency” in Andhra Pradesh to protect the state from the alleged gross mismanagement by the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy regime.

The Congress also called for such clamping financial emergency in the state. The TDP wanted the Centre to simultaneously order an investigation by the CBI into the alleged misappropriation of public money to the tune of Rs 48,000 crore by the state government in one year.

“The Centre should immediately step in and impose financial emergency under Article 360 to protect AP, its wealth and the people. The Jagan regime pushed the state into a financial mess that is leading to a grave crisis,” Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Yanamala Ramakrishnudu apprehended.

“Into whose pockets has the Rs 48,284 crore gone,” the former Finance Minister questioned, referring to financial transactions through ‘special bills’. Yanamala pointed out to the observations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General in the latest report on the state finances and said there was no provision for special bills in the Financial Code.

Asserting that it was nothing but misappropriation, the TDP politburo member wanted an investigation by the CBI to unearth the facts. He cited the case of fodder scam in Bihar, wherein the CBI inquiry was conducted based on the findings of the CAG.

It happened in the cases of scandals in Commonwealth Games and 2G spectrum sale as well, he pointed out. “It is for the Jagan Reddy government also to prove its honesty in this regard,” he told reporters. The former minister noted that financial management by the YSR Congress government has been “atrocious”.

“There is no decline in state revenues but the revenue deficit has been mounting. Off-budget borrowing touched Rs 1. 09 lakh crore while another Rs 58,000 crore has been raised through open market borrowing. Nobody knows how all this money is being spent as there has been a steady decline in capital expenditure from 10 to 7 per cent in the last three years,” Yanamala said.

The state government has been spending at least Rs 21,000 crore per annum on paying interest alone on borrowed money.

Another Rs 10,000 crore was going towards repayment of the principal, he added. “It is time the Centre intervened and took control of AP’s finances. Otherwise the state will be pushed into further danger,” he warned.

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.