The Centre has so far provided a financial assistance of Rs 35,492 crore to the Andhra Pradesh government, Union MoS for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed Lok Sabha Monday.
Replying to supplementary question asked by TDP member Daggumalla Prasad Rao, Chaudhary said the Centre has provided Rs 1,678.76 crore as resource gap, Rs 1,750 for Rayalaseema, the most backward region of the state, Rs 2,500 crore for the capital at Amaravati, and Rs 15,147 crore for Polavaram irrigation project.
Under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, the Centre provides financial assistance to the state.
Chaudhary said that the central government has released over Rs 63,000 crore to Andhra Pradesh over the last five years from 2019-20 to 2023-24 under various centrally sponsored schemes. They are Rs 11,003.60 crore in 2019-20, Rs 12,928.69 crore in 2020-21, Rs 9,696.98 crore in 2021-22, Rs 16,114.94 crore in 2022-23 and Rs 13,313.77 crore in 2023-24.
Rao had asked him whether there were any issues of fund diversion or misallocation related to these funds in Andhra during the past five years. He also said Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu has requested for substantial financial support from the Centre to help reconstruct and rebuild the state, which is facing acute financial challenges to continue the stalled infrastructure projects.
Chaudhary said Naidu had given a letter to the Centre in this regard. The central government would examine Andhra Pradesh’s request and take a decision, he said.
“As far as the centrally sponsored schemes are concerned, these are available for all states. A scheme is not stopped in a particular state. We only urge that the scheme be implemented as per the guidelines,” Chaudhary said, adding that the Finance Ministry allocates funds through budgetary process to different ministries and departments for each of the schemes, including the centrally sponsored schemes.
Chaudhary said the funds that remain unutilised are adjusted towards the grants-in-aid payable during the next financial year.
Another TDP member Kesineni Sivanath raised the issue of fund diversion by the then YSRCP government. “Despite the fact that Rs 62,500 crore was given by the central government, these funds have been diverted and case of corruption has been noticed,” Sivanath said, adding that it was mentioned by Naidu in the White Paper released on Polavaram Irrigation Project and Amravati.
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