BRS calls for State-wide protests over ‘betrayal of farmers’ on Aug 22; dharnas to be held at all mandal centres

BRS has called for a protest across Telangana on Thursday to demand that the state government completely waive off Rs 2 lakh crop loans of all farmers without any restrictions.

Hyderabad: Coming down heavily on the Congress government for its failure on the crop loan waiver, terming it the biggest betrayal farmers were subjected to in the State, BRS working president KT Rama Rao said on Wednesday that the rank and file of the party would join the farmers in their fight against the government.

Addressing a press conference along with a host of BRS leaders at Telangana Bhavan, he said the BRS would launch a State-wide protest from Thursday organising dharnas at mandal centres in the State to press for an unconditional loan waiver to all farmers. If the government failed to respond positively to the demand, the BRS would not hesitate to call for a ‘Jail Bharo’ programme in the next phase courting arrests throughout the State in support of the farmers’ demand for the loan waiver as promised.

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Farmers were up in arms against the State government for letting them down on the loan waiver, thus adding to the unrest. The State government had also unleashed a reign of terror by booking cases against them for staging protests. Cases were booked against them in Adilabad invoking provisions of Sections 126, 189, and 223 of the Indian Penal Code, he said, adding that these could lead to severe penalties and stringent punishments with imprisonment ranging up to seven years.

The situation was tense, with many farmers frustrated as they still faced substantial debt despite the government’s assurances of the waiver. Quoting Cabinet colleagues of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, Rama Rao said Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka had admitted that the farmers had received only Rs.7500 crore so far. Irrigation Miniser N Uttam Kumar Reddy had gone on record stating that over 17 lakh farmers were yet to get the waiver.

Revanth Reddy and Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageshwar Rao had claimed to have completed the waiver process, which was much in contrast to the admissions of other ministers. The Chief Minister had backstabbed 70 lakh farmers in the State, he said, pointing out that the Chief Minister, who had announced a debt relief of Rs.49,000 crore as part of the crop loan waiver initially, scaled it down to Rs.31,000 crore and subsequently to Rs.17000 crore. But the net waiver extended to the farmers, as admitted by Bhatti Vikramarka, was only Rs.7500 crore.

He said BRS functionaries and elected representatives were reaching out to farmers gathering information right from village level. As part of the exercise, they had reached out to the farmers even in the Chief Minister’s native village of Kondareddypalli, where it was found that less than 30 percent of farmers got the loan waiver in the last three phases. The situation in Revanth Reddy’s constituency of Kodangal was no different. In Kondareddypalli, bankers in the village were warned against disclosing the waiver information to BRS teams reaching out to them. Bankers were being held out threats over phone by Collectors, he said, adding that the BRS would not back out from its commitment to fight for the farmers. The party would seek information on the waiver under the Right to Information Act and if necessary, take up the issue with the Chief Secretary.

Palabhishekam to Telangana Thalli

Rama Rao earlier appealed to the party cadre to perform a ‘palabhishekam’ to the statues of Telangana Thalli before embarking on the dharna against the non-waiver of crop loans. The ‘palabhishekam’ should be in protest against the unparliamentary and abusive language used by Revanth Reddy in response to the BRS demand for installation of the Telangana Thalli statue near the Secretariat as was decided earlier.

If there was no statue of Telangana Thalli around, the ritual should be performed at least by arranging a flex board of Telangana Thalli, he said.