Hyderabad: Agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao lambasted BJP leaders for claiming that many farmers had not received the loan waiver. He flayed the party for failing to keep their promise of doubling farmers’ incomes.
In a press release, Nageswara Rao asked, “Is the BJP ready to answer why it failed to increase farmers’ incomes and actually reduced them by increasing the input costs? Farmers should call the toll-free number launched by the BJP and pose this question. Did they ever listen to the farmers' pleas to implement Swaminathan Committee recommendations?”
The minister wondered if any BJP state government had ever implemented a loan waiver scheme for farmers while they were extending unlimited credit to industrialists. Nageswara Rao questioned the BJP's commitment to farmers by citing the Centre’s failure to provide a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,876 for paddy, in line with Swaminathan Committee suggestions.
"This caused a loss of Rs 664 per quintal to farmers as the MSP was fixed at Rs 2,203. Can the central minister Kishan Reddy speak on this,” he asked.
Nageswara Rao said the Congress state government was fulfilling the loan waiver promise to honour the word given by Rahul Gandhi as part of the Warangal Declaration. Technical snags were being resolved to ensure payment of waiver amount into farmers' accounts, he informed.
The minister said that PM Kisan help should be increased and the farmers' data should be updated to extend the benefit to the maximum number of farmers.
