High Court raps government for fudging accounts

Hyderabad: Telangana State High Court took a broadside at the State government and also the RTC management for submitting a fudged and fabricated statement of accounts regarding the actual arrears of reimbursement amount due from the GHMC to the RTC.

The court adjourned further hearing of the case to November 7 and directed the RTC and the State government to come up with correct financial figures.

The hearing with regard to the on-going RTC strike in the State came up before the High Court once again on Friday.

In-charge MD of RTC Sunil Sharma and another secretary of the State government attended the court and presented affidavits in the form of financial statements regarding the reimbursement arrears to be received by the corporation from the GHMC for losses being incurred in running the buses in the city.

After going into the financial statement, the court expressed its ire and dissatisfaction over the "fabricated and false" accounts.

What annoyed the court was that the amounts spent on purchase of buses, diesel and spare parts were shown as reimbursed amount.

It was pointed out that Rs 336 crore was paid by the GHMC for the years 2015-2017, out of Rs 1,786 crore demanded. The GHMC has made it clear that it was not in a position to pay any further amount due to financial crunch.

Since there is no agreement or contract between the GHMC and RTC to reimburse the losses, the question of any arrears does not arise, the in-charge MD of RTC pointed.

Taking a strong view about the stance taken by the RTC MD, the court wondered why he was taking the side of the government instead of fighting for the cause of the RTC.

The court also expressed its displeasure that though two IAS officers were present at the hearing no proper and factual reports were coming forth regarding the financial position of the RTC.