Cash-strapped AP locks up treasury, bills worth Rs 400 cr pending

Hyderabad, Nov 4: Andhra Pradesh is in serious financial trouble. With no money to pay its bills, the state government is said to have locked up its treasury. The government also directed its treasuries not to pay bills without the permission of the finance department. The trasuries were also directed not to issue Letter of Credit (LoC) to any government institution without clearances from the finance department. With the result, bills worth Rs 400 crore are pending with the treasuries as no payments have been done in the past 20 days. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu left for New Delhi on Tuesday along with the Principal Secretary (Finance) PV Ramesh to exert pressure on and plead with the central government to release more funds for Andhra Pradesh, sources said.