By HYDERABAD: Taking yet another step towards fulfilling six guarantees promised by the Congress during Assembly elections, the state government is all set to implement the crop loan waiver scheme from Thursday.
The government will release the first tranche of Rs 6,800 crore to farmers whose loans are below Rs 1 lakh. Officials said around 11 lakh farmers’ families will benefit from the scheme.
Sonia Gandhi promised the formation of Telangana state.
On the eve of implementing the scheme, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy held a meeting with ministers, MLAs and other party leaders in Praja Bhavan on Wednesday.
During the meeting, he announced that the government would waive loans below Rs 1 lakh at 4 pm on Thursday. Loans between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh will be waived by this month-end and the remaining in August, he added.
He recalled that on May 6, 2022, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi promised to waive crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh in Telangana and said: “If the Gandhi family gives its word, it is an edict set in stone. Sonia Gandhi promised the formation of Telangana state and she delivered it in 2014. Before Assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi promised loan waiver up to Rs 2 lakh and we are implementing it.”
The chief minister said that though financial experts held that it was difficult to waive all the crop loans, the government moved forward nonetheless to implement the scheme.
He said that the waiver of crop loans would be a memorable occasion for him in his life. He reiterated that the Congress aimed to make every farmer debt-free. Telangana should become a role model for the rest of the country in formulating agriculture policy, he added.
He suggested that Congress leaders explain to people the good work being done by the government.
“We have to celebrate the occasion. Organise programmes in villages and mandals. Explain to the people how the Congress has redeemed its promise. Take out bike rallies on Thursday in villages and mandals up to Rythu Vedikas where celebrations have to be organised. MLAs should participate in programmes in their respective constituencies. There should be a national-level discussion on loan waiver. No state in the country has spent Rs 31,000 crore on crop loan waiver,” he said.
The chief minister instructed the Congress MPs to mention in Parliament that the guarantee announced by Rahul Gandhi has been implemented.
Alleging that former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao fooled farmers in the name of crop loan waiver during the BRS regime, Revanth said that in seven months, his government has spent Rs 30,000 crore on welfare.
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said that they had spent several sleepless nights for the implementation of the loan waiver scheme given the tough financial situation in which the state was left by the previous BRS government. Yet the government mobilised rupee by rupee and took up the loan waiver programme, Bhatti Vikramarka added.
Making it clear that all the farmer’s families will be extended a loan waiver, he said that even six lakh families without ration cards would be covered. No farmer would be left out, he said.
He said that despite financial difficulties, the Congress government implemented five guarantees within a few days after coming to power. But these were not being given publicity to the expected extent at the field level, he noted.
