Crop loan waiver scheme is bogus: KTR

Hyderabad: BRS party working president KT Rama Rao today alleged that CM Revanth Reddy had opened the door to fraud in the name of crop loan waiver and added that the loan waiver figures being shown by the State government were bogus while terming the scheme as a million dollar joke.

Speaking to media persons at Telangana Bhavan on Friday, he said CM Revanth Reddy and the Congress party are taking credit for the loan waiver scheme. KTR alleged that it was the biggest fraud committed by the CM in independent India and added that the Congress party was playing a cruel joke with the farmers of the State. He said the farm loan waiver was full of arbitrary restrictions, meaningless conditions and cut-offs. He claimed that even half of the eligible farmers had not been given the loan waiver benefit.

KTR recalled that Revanth Reddy had said before the election campaign that ₹.40,000 crore would be required for the crop loan waiver of Rs 2 lakh. “As soon as the elections are over, this count has changed again. In July, the Telangana CMO had tweeted that the cabinet had decided to waive off a loan waiver of Rs 31,000 crore. It said before the elections, everyone who had taken the farm loan were eligible for the scheme. But now, it has come up with several restrictions to limit the scheme only to a few farmers,” he alleged. He mocked that Revanth Reddy was not a Chief Minister but a Cutting Master.

“If you look at the loan waiver figures, the Loan waiver was cut for the government employees and the pensioners. It was also cut for the Income Tax payers. It was also cut for those, who don’t have ration cards. All this was not said before the elections,” he said. He alleged that the farmers had been forced to hang around banks and officials by the State government. KTR said the loan waiver that has been done till Thursday was only Rs 17,934 crore benefiting only 22,37,748 farmers.

He recalled that in the first term of the BRS government, 35 lakh farmers were given the loan waiver benefit of Rs 17,000 crore in a single term. "When we were in power, we waived off the loans and even implemented rythu bandhu scheme," he said while noting that Rs 72,000 crore has been deposited in rythu bandhu accounts of the farmers by their government. At the same time, nearly Rs 30,000 crore has been waived off.