CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for Delhi today

Vijayawada: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. He will be leaving for the national capital in the afternoon of Thursday and is scheduled to meet PM Modi at 4.30 pm.

It is learnt that Jagan would be discussing several issues related to the state, including the arrears which is due from the Centre towards the money spent on the Polavaram project. He is also likely to take up the long-pending issues like disputes between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana following the bifurcation of the state in 2014. Sources said that the chief minister will discuss the assurances under the AP Reorganisation Act 2014, which need to be fulfilled.

He is also expected to meet Union Minister for Home Amit Shah and other Union ministers. Jagan will urge the Union Government to increase the state's net borrowing ceiling for the current financial year. This assumes importance as the state has been facing mounting debt burdens and unaccounted loans. It may be mentioned here that the Union Government had fixed a borrowing ceiling of Rs 42,472 crore but the state had borrowed Rs 55,000 crore for 2021-22. The total public debt of the state is projected to be around Rs 4,39,394.35 crore in 2022-23, up from Rs 3,90,670 crore as per the revised estimate for 2021-22. In addition, the government stood guarantee for a sum of Rs 1,17,503 crore, borrowed by various state-run entities till December 31, 2021.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has been asking the Andhra government to furnish details related to loans raised by public sector undertakings, backed by the state guarantee. The CAG is yet to finalise the state's annual accounts for the 2021-22 financial year.

Consequently, the Union government is yet to fix the fresh borrowing limit, thereby limiting the state's scope for raising loans from the open market, the sources pointed out.