Govt order exposes AP CM's tall talk

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's tall claims about the ''improved financial situation'' in the state have been exposed following a 20 per cent cut on revenue and capital expenditure.

According to a directive issued by the state finance secretary recently, all government departments should restrict their expenditure to 80 per cent of the budgetary allocations.

Besides capital and revenue expenditure, the order is also applicable to loans and advances given to government staff.

This has come as a shock to the people, considering Naidu's claims that the budget deficit has been brought down. In February, state Finance Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju presented the budget for 1997-98, showing a revenue expenditure of Rs 137.31 billion, capital expenditure of Rs 9.7 billion and loans and advances of Rs 10.27 billion. The deficit was Rs 11.81 billion.

With higher revenue inflow due to the lifting of prohibition in April this year, the deficit was reduced to Rs 5.62 billion. Further reduction in the deficit was expected.

So what had gone wrong? Sources said the huge allocations made to Naidu's pet programmes like ''Sramadanam'', ''Janma Bhoomi'' and ''Karshaka Vignana Vedikas'' had almost pushed the state to the brink of a financial disaster.

The budgetary cut also implies a reduction in the Rs 38.09 billion state annual plan outlay for 1997-98. Such a reduction is being effected for the third consecutive year -- all under the Telugu Desam government. If the late N T Rama Rao slashed the plan outlay by Rs 6.5 billion in 1994-95, Naidu curtailed it by Rs 2 billion to Rs 27.73 billion in 1996-97.