As Telangana state formation process if progressing at a rapid pace, an interesting piece of information was unearthed by the Mission Telangana team.
When Telangana was merged with Andhra, it was a revenue surplus region. It had a plethora of movable and immovable assets, which very few regions/states in India had at that time. One such asset was Government Securities (bonds) worth Rs. 13.59 Crores. When Telangana was merged with Andhra, these securities were handed over to the Andhra Pradesh government.
As soon as the AP state was formed, the Andhra leaders started diverting surplus funds from Telangana region to Andhra region. The Telangana Regional Committee documented these unfair practices elaborately in their reports.
In 1969, when the issue of Telangana surpluses reached its peak, two committees were formed to ascertain the surpluses from Telangana region. The AP state government had then assured in state assembly that the Telangana Securities would be treated as Telangana assets only. These securities were held by Reserve Bank at that time. Nobody is aware of what happened to these Securities later.
Since the assets and liabilities would be distributed during demerger of Telangana, it is only logical that all assets which Telangana brought as its share during merger, should naturally be given to Telangana
Telangana Securities, whose worth was Rs 13.59 Crores in 1956, would be worth about Rs 5000 Crores now, if we take the interest and inflation into account. The fact that AP Budget was just about Rs 58 Crores, and it has increased to Rs 1.6 Lakh Crores now, should put the financial value of the Telangana Securities in perspective.
Mission Telangana demands that the AP government should hand over these securities to the Telangana government as soon as it is formed.