KCR Pushing Farmers Towards Moneylenders, says Etala, in Loan Waiver Critique

Hyderabad: The BJP on Tuesday accused Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao of deliberately pushing farmers of Telangana to rely on private moneylenders by delaying payments to banks as part of the promised farm loan waiver.

Huzurabad MLA and BJP leader Etala Rajendar, addressing a press conference, said despite making claims that farm loan waivers of Rs 27,000 crore will be paid, the government has released only Rs 1,200 crore. Further, he said that due to the delay, farmers have piled up 7 to 11 per cent penal interest on unpaid loans, amounting to Rs 13,000-Rs 14,000 crore.

“Who will pay these penal interests? The Chief Minister is responsible for the plight of the farmers and pushing them to private moneylenders yet again,” Rajendar said.

He said that the recent Kokapet land auctions were staged to show that real estate in Hyderabad was booming, with each acre being bought for around Rs 100 crore.

The latest Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s report has made it clear that Telangana is now a revenue deficit state and allocations announced in the Budgets were not being spent. “This should be a wake-up call to the people on the mismanagement of the state by the Chief Minister,” Rajendar said.

“Chandrashekar Rao and the BRS again displayed their disdain for the people with just a three-day Assembly session. Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy too, more or less, made it clear that the session that concluded this past Sunday would be the last for the Telangana Legislature, by thanking everyone for behaving in a ‘dignified’ manner,” Rajendar said.

In a strong criticism of the Speaker, Rajendar said: “The Speaker’s claims are like the devil quoting scripture. The BJP was not invited to the Business Advisory Committee meetings, and when we wanted to speak, we were not given time. The BJP was not even given a room; we used a room set aside for security staff to prepare our notes.”

“When BJP raised the issue of recent floods, no clear response came from the government. We are reiterating our demand that families of 41 people who lost their lives in the floods must be given ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh each, initial immediate relief of Rs 25,000 must be paid to families who lost everything and Rs 50,000 to small business holders who too suffered,” Rajendar said.

He said the short Assembly sessions “show Chandrashekar Rao has no faith in democratic systems and legislative bodies. In unified Andhra Pradesh, Budget Sessions used to be held for almost 45 days, followed by around 15 days each of monsoon and winter sessions.”

This year, the Assembly met for just 14 days, including 11 days of the Budget Session but not including the one day this Monsoon Session that was adjourned after condolences.

The Chief Minister announced in the Assembly that AIMIM is a friendly party of the BRS, but the AIMIM is given the status of the principal Opposition party. “And when we from the BJP raise an issue, the government does not respond but when Majlis MLAs speak on the same issue, the government rushes to issue assurances and promises to solve the issues,” he said.