Andhra Pradesh stood on top among all the states in the country in borrowing funds from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the first four months of this financial year, said the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national spokesman Kommareddy Pattabhiram.

Pattabhiram said that from April this year the RBI has extended loans 17 times till now to various states through auction of state government security. Andhra Pradesh utilised this opportunity to the maximum possible by participating in this auction for 14 times.

In fact, Andhra Pradesh is the first state in the country to approach the RBI this fiscal, he said.

In this financial year, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government has till now raised loans to the extent of Rs 29,500 crore thus taking the state to the top in borrowings, the TDP spokesperson said.

The neighbouring states of Karnataka and Odisha have not raised any loans in this fiscal, he said.

Though Tamil Nadu has borrowed Rs 40,000 crore in this financial year, its Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) Rs 28 lakh crore, Pattabhi said.

Since any state can raise loans upto three per cent of the GSDP, Tamil Nadu can raise loans upto Rs 85,000 crore, he narrated. Going by this, Tamil nadu has till now not utilised even 50 per cent of the credit limit, he explained.

However, Andhra Pradesh has already reached 97.4 per cent of the limit which the state borrowed from the RBI alone, Pattabhiram said. These statistics clearly indicate that Andhra Pradesh is in a worse situation than Tamil Nadu, he stated.

Giving the statistics of other states, the TDP leader said that bigger states in the country like Maharashtra has borrowed Rs 23,000 crore, Rajasthan 20,500 crore, Telangana Rs 17,000 crore, Punjab Rs 15,500 crore, Kerala Rs 12,500 crore, Uttar Pradesh Rs 9,500 crore, West Bengal Rs 6,500 crore, Gujarat 5,500 crore. The backward state of Bihar raised Rs 4,000 crore in this fiscal till now.

He alleged that Jagan Mohan Reddy has created a record of sorts by becoming the richest Chief Minister of the country after resorting to large-scale corruption and by borrowing huge amounts of funds.

Why only Andhra Pradesh is badly in need of borrowing funds unlike any other State and why only the State is knocking at the RBI door much before other States, he asked.

“The only answer is the large-scale corruption of Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy who is borrowing funds and diverting them to his own coffers through backdoor,” he said.

Observing that not even a single rupee is being spent for the development of the state, he said as a result of this the roads are in such a bad condition while irrigation has taken a back seat.

He claimed that the people have already realised the facts and are ready to teach a lesson to Jagan when the time comes.