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Opposition walks out of Andhra Pradesh assembly

The entire opposition, barring the Bharatiya Janata Party, staged a walkout from the Andhra Pradesh assembly today, protesting against the government's refusal to table the report of a World Bank study titled India-Andhra Pradesh: Agenda for Economic Reforms.

Finance Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju rejected the demand, saying the World Bank document is available on the Internet and members could access it there.

He said it was not a report of the Andhra Pradesh government to be tabled in the assembly.

Before walking out, members from the Congress, the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Telugu Desam Party-NTR, and the Majlis Bachao Tehrik charged the government with ignoring the interests of the people when accepting the bank's conditions for giving the state a loan.

They demanded that the memorandum of understanding reached in this regard be tabled in the House.

Congress floor leader P Janardhana Reddy alleged that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had, in a letter to the World Bank, assured it that his government would reduce jobs by 2.5 per cent annually and cut down subsidies and the white ration cards issued to the poor.

Replying to the opposition charge, Raju said the state government had accepted some conditions while rejecting others, including those regarding subsidies.

He accused the opposition of indulging in a disinformation campaign and said the loan of Rs33.20 billion under the Andhra Pradesh Economic Restructuring Project was meant to improve the infrastructure and living conditions of the poor. The loan component also carries a 58 per cent grant.

He said the state government had agreed to bring down the fiscal deficit from the present 3 per cent to 2.5 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product by 2003 and reduce the salary bill to 5 per cent of the GSDP from 5.3 per cent.

It had also agreed to keep the fiscal revenue deficit below 0.8 per cent of the GSDP and to raise expenditure on primary health from the present 0.9 per cent to 1.8 per cent.

It had also agreed to raise expenditure on non-salary operations and maintenance from 1.3 to 2.2 per cent, to increase the capital outlay from 1.3 to 2.5 per cent, and to ensure that the total debt does not cross 24 per cent of the GSDP.

UNI

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