Section 44:
Public Debt.
(1) All liabilities on account of Public Debt and Public Account of the existing
State of Madhya Pradesh outstanding immediately before the appointed day shall be apportioned in the
ratio of population of the successor States unless a different mode of apportionment is provided under the
provisions of this Act.
(2) The individual items of liabilities to be allocated to the successor States and the amount of
contribution required to be made by one successor State to another shall be such as may be ordered by the
Central Government in consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India:
Provided that till such orders are issued, the liabilities on account of Public Debt and Public Account
of the existing State of Madhya Pradesh shall continue to be the liabilities of the successor State of
Madhya Pradesh.
(3) The liability on account of loans raised from any source and re-lent by the existing State of
Madhya Pradesh to such entities as may be specified by the Central Government and whose area of
operation is confined to either of the successor States shall devolve on the respective States as specified in
sub-section (4).
(4) The Public Debt of the existing State of Madhya Pradesh attributable to loan taken from any
source for the express purpose of re-lending the same to a specific institution and outstanding
immediately before the appointed day shall—
(a) if re-lent to any local body, body corporate or other institution in any local area, be the debt of
the State in which the local area is included on the appointed day; or
(b) if re-lent to the Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board, the Madhya Pradesh State Road
Transport Corporation, or the Madhya Pradesh Housing Board or any other institution which becomes
an inter-State institution on the appointed day, be divided between the States of Madhya Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh in the same proportion in which the assets of such body corporate or institution are
divided under the provisions of Part VII of this Act.
(5) Where a sinking fund or a depreciation fund is maintained by the existing State of Madhya
Pradesh for repayment of any loan raised by it, the securities held in respect of investments made from
that fund shall be divided between the successor States of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the same
proportion in which the total public debt is divided between the two States under this section.
(6) In this section, the expression "Government security" means a security, created and issued by a
State Government for the purpose of raising a public loan and having any of the forms specified in, or
prescribed under clause (2) of section 2 of the Public Debt Act, 1944 (18 of 1944).