While Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is going ahead with fulfilling his loan waiver promise to farmers in three phases, starting from Thursday, BRS Executive President and former minister KT Rama Rao blamed the chief minister for cheating farmers by diverting Rythu Bandhu funds for it.
He lamented that the Congress government is allegedly taking farmers for a ride in the guise of implementing the crop loan waive, he pointed out the government is maintaining a strategic silence on the Rythu Bandhu assistance to be extended to farmers this season.
Under Rythu Bandhu, he mentioned that the Congress government had to extend Rs.7000 crore assistance to farmers in June but these funds have been diverted for implementation of the crop loan waiver.
Over 40 lakh farmers had secured loans upto Rs.1 lakh but the government was waiving off the loans of only 11 lakh farmers. More so, the crop loan waiver being done by the Congress government was meager compared to the waiver done under the KCR government in 2014 and 2018, he added.
KTR pointed out that in 2014, the KCR government had waived off Rs 1 lakh loans secured by 35 lakh farmers by spending about Rs 16,144 crore. Again in 2018, loans of 37 lakh farmers were waived off by spending about Rs.19,198 crore.
KTR demanded that as per its election manifesto, the Congress government should waive off all the loans upto Rs.2 lakh. Apart from this, all eligible farmers should be extended Rythu Bandhu assistance immediately.
Meanwhile, former Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy wondered how the Congress government claimed a waiver of loans with Rs.6800 crore for just 11.5 lakh farmers.
He asserted that the government should disclose the details of farmers, who secured loans upto Rs.1 lakh and those, who had obtained Rs.2 lakh loans. Further, the BRS leader said that the government should also announce the total amount required for waiving off Rs.2 lakh loans.
