Andhra Pradesh   

Congress getting desperate: TDP

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, APRIL 14. The Telugu Desam Party on Wednesday said it was firmly convinced about the Congress party treating the elections this time as a `matter of life and death.' Congress leaders were themselves admitting it and their "desperation'' was clearly visible.

At a press conference, the party spokesman, C. Ramachandraiah, said in "their desperation,'' Congress leaders had adopted a single-point agenda of slinging mud at the TDP. The Congress was alleging that the TDP's budget for fighting the elections was a whopping Rs. 500 crores. "Are they thinking that the Election Commission of India is not doing its job. It is for the expenditure observers of the commission to check our accounts,'' he quipped.

The Congress was also questioning the State's financial position during the time the TDP was at the helm of affairs, he said. How could development figures be false, he asked, going on to add that the Congress was saying that the State's debt stood at over Rs. 79,000 crores, when the official figure as of March 31, 2003 was about Rs. 50,084 crores. In comparison, the borrowings of West Bengal were Rs. 68,111 crores, Maharashtra (Rs. 61,324 crores). The only State which had lesser borrowings than AP was Gujarat with Rs. 46,689 crores.

AP had the distinction of getting loans from external financial institutions at the lowest rates of interest - an average of just about 7 per cent, Mr. Ramachandraiah said. Of course, there were borrowings at rates of interest averaging between 14 and 16 per cent, he said, reeling out figures. West Bengal had taken Rs. 38,987 crores of such loans, Maharashtra (Rs. 19,406 crores), Uttar Pradesh (Rs. 15, 476 crores) and Punjab (Rs. 9,160 crores). In contrast, Andhra Pradesh had taken only Rs. 5,982 crores at high rates of interest.

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