HYDERABAD: Agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao said that unlike the BRS administration, the Congress government had waived farm loans to the tune of `two lakh each in one go, as well as the interest amounts, in the very first crop season after coming to power. The BRS, Nageswara Rao said, had failed to fulfill the promise even after ruling the state for nearly 10 years. In the process accounts of nearly 20 lakh farmers were frozen by bank, which declared them as ‘defaulters’.
Making a comparison between the loan waivers executed by the BRS and the Congress governments, a release by the agriculture ministry showed that the BRS government’s first loan waiver to the tune of Rs 16,144 crore was done in four installments. In the second phase, they spent Rs 11,910 crore, while leaving loans worth Rs 8,579 crore belonging to 20.84 lakh farmers unpaid.
In stark contrast, the Congress government had cleared loans at one go spending Rs 17,933.19 crore, which included interest amounts. The present loan waiver has benefited 22,37,848 farmers, he said.
The ministry said that when K. Chandrasekhar Rao became the Chief Minister for the first time, Telangana was a revenue-surplus state. The release of money in phases had sufficed to pay the interest on crop loans.
The present waiver, the ministry informed, was done in line with the ‘farmers’ declaration’ and the promise of AICC leader Rahul Gandhi.
The ministry said the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections had delayed the process.
Earlier, BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao had written an open letter to Rahul Gandhi in which he wondered how the numbers had reduced to 22.37 lakh farmers. He said that the BRS government had spent Rs 19,198 crore for waiving 36.68 lakh farmer loans worth Rs 1 lakh each.
Rama Rao cited data from the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), saying: “Banks had disbursed `49,500 crore in crop loans to farmers during the financial year 2023-24 but only Rs 17,933 crore have been waived, covering just 22.37 lakh farmers.”
