Andhra Pradesh chief minister designate Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Sunday that the state was facing a financial crisis as the debts have mounted to Rs.2,58,928 crore and managing on overdraft.
Addressing a press conference in Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi, he said that when the United AP state was bifurcated in June 2014, the state debts was Rs.97,000 crore but now they had gone up to Rs.2.58 lakh crore. AP is paying Rs.20,000 crore interest for the loans, he said.
The huge debts had become a big burden to the State’s exchequer, he regretted.
Reddy said that he explained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the financial position of the state and urged for help and the Prime Minister responded positively. “I will keep on meeting the Prime Minister and urge him of granting Special Category Status (SCS). I believe that AP will be granted SCS one day in the future”, he said.
He made it clear that he would take oath alone on May 30 as chief minister of AP and the cabinet ministers would take oath later.
The chief minister designate said a ‘white paper’ would be released on department-wise to apprise people about the exact picture after formation of cabinet. “I will being revolutionary changes in administration within one year and ensure that the will be no corruption” Reddy said.
Describing his election manifesto as holy as Bhagavad Gita, Bible and Quran, he assured to implement the assurances mentioned in the manifesto to ensure that faith of people on his government would not dilute. He also assured that the liquor would be “confined” only to five star hotels by 2024.
“We wished that the NDA should not win more than “250 seats”. If the NDA wins only 250 seats, they require our support so that we can put condition of granting SCS to AP to extend support to NDA,” he said.
Reddy said that he called on Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekhr Rao, which further strengthened the relations between the two Telugu states. (UNI)
