BRS holds State-wide protests, demands for complete farm loan waiver

BRS demanded that the crop loan waiver benefit to be extended to all farmers up to Rs.2 lakh of their outstanding debt in banks as promised by the Congress during the Assembly polls

Hyderabad: Declaring its unbridled support to farmers across the State, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Thursday joined hands with farmers from every mandal and district headquarters to hold massive protests and demonstrations across all 119 Assembly constituencies in Telangana, demanding a full, unconditional waiver of crop loans for all farmers.

The BRS demanded that the crop loan waiver benefit to be extended to all farmers up to Rs.2 lakh of their outstanding debt in banks as promised by the Congress during the Assembly polls.

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The ‘Rythu Nirasana Deeksha’ protests, organised at the mandal and constituency levels, saw BRS workers and farmers taking to the streets, despite police attempts to halt the demonstrations in some areas. The protesters lashed out at Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for failing to fulfill his promise to the farming community and called for immediate action on the loan waiver.

The BRS cadre clashed with the Congress activists at a few places, before the police intervened and arrested the former.

At Tirumalgiri in Thungathurthy of Suryapet district, the Congress activists organised a counter programme and performed ‘abhishekam’ to the portrait of the Chief Minister.

A heated argument ensued between both the party activists, leading to stone pelting, before the police dispersed them. Former MLA Gadari Kishore Kumar is learnt to have sustained minor injuries during a lathicharge by the police.

BRS working president KT Rama Rao led the protests in Chevella, while senior leader T Harish Rao participated in the dharna at Alair.

They demanded for transparency in the government’s loan waiver process, and sought an explanation over reducing the amount spent for the scheme.

The BRS leaders pointed out that while the Chief Minister announced a waiver of Rs.40,000 crore, the Cabinet had approved only Rs 31,000 crore and only Rs 26,000 crore was allocated in the State budget. Finally, just Rs.18,000 crore was disbursed, leaving many farmers in distress.

Farmers showed strong support for the protests, expressing their anger over the conditions imposed by the Revanth Reddy government to implement the scheme for them, even while waiving off loans easily for elected representatives of the Congress.

Speaking at the protest held in Chevella of Rangareddy district along with BRS legislators P Sabitha Indra Reddy, D Sudheer Reddy, Mohd Mahmood Ali and others, Rama Rao said the Congress was using police force to suppress the public outrage, but declared that the BRS would not bow down to the pressure tactics or attacks by the Congress.

“Chief Minister Revanth Reddy promised to sign his first file, immediately after taking oath, pertaining to the loan waiver document to write off outstanding debt up to Rs.2 lakh per farmer and took an oath in the name of AICC leader Sonia Gandhi. However, after coming to power, he started searching for ways to betray the farmers and slashed the amount required for waiver from Rs.40,000 crore to Rs 17,000 crore,” he said.

Rama Rao asked the party leaders to visit every village and collect the details of farmers who did not receive the loan waiver. He said unable to deliver electoral promises, the Chief Minister was opting for attention diversion techniques including use of filthy and abusive language, insulting opposition women legislators and with attacks on those questioning him, including women journalists.

“If the Chief Minister truly waived off all crop loans as promised, why should he fear journalists visiting his native village of Kondareddypally or any other place in the State,” he asked.