The Telangana Government’s plans to put cap on crop loan waiver, 2013-14 and limit it to Rs1,00,000 has run into strong resistance from the Opposition parties pushing the Government on defensive.
A day after Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao met the State bankers to discuss the issue of crop loan waiver, the main Opposition Congress and the BJP on Thursday demanded that there should not be any condition or capping on the farm loans.
Even with all those conditions, the loan waiver will put a burden of Rs10,000 crore on the State exchequer. The State Government intends to repay this amount to the banks over a period of three to four years.
Charging the TRS Government with cheating and betraying the farmers, Congress leaders in the State Assembly and the legislative Council said that all the loans of the farmers without any time limit should be waived.
On the Government stand that it will only waive the loans which were taken for the crops and not for other purposes like building a warehouse or loans against gold, Congress leader in legislative Council D Srinivas reminded the Government that the farmers take loans only for investment in agriculture.
“There should be no any cap. TRS should fulfil the promise it made to the farmers in its election manifesto,” he said. K Jana Reddy, leader of Opposition in the State Assembly said that the farmers were angry with the stand of the Government and they will launch protest across the State. “If the Government takes measures to write off all the loans of farmers, we will cooperate with the Government,” he said.
State BJP president G Kishan Reddy said that the TRS should not go back on its election promise. “They had promise to waive the farmers loan and they should keep it,” he said. However, the TRS Government rejected the criticism saying the Government had not taken any decision and matter was still under discussion. “In Wednesday’s meeting the Government had asked the bankers only for the information. We will meet them again on Monday before taking a decision,” said the State Finance Minister E Rajindar.
“We are still in the process of gathering information,” he said appealing the people not to believe in the false propaganda of the anti-Telangana parties. “We are committed to the welfare of farmers and will take a decision only after discussing the issues thoroughly,” he told the media in Hyderabad.
Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao told in a public meeting, in his constituency Gajwel that the Government will implement the loan waiver scheme in 10 days time.
Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas also denied that the Government had taken any decision to cap the loan waiver only to one year. “We will ensure that farmers don’t face any problem in procuring seeds and fertilisers,” he said.
He also promised eight hours free power supply for the kharif season and 24 hours uninterrupted power supply in three years.