Harish Rao calls out false claims of CM Revanth Reddy on crop loan waiver

Chief Minister's claims of waiving loans up to Rs.2 lakh for farmers were blatantly false. The Congress which promised to waive off crop loans by December 9, 2023, extended the deadline until August 15, 2024, only to fail once again, said Harish

Hyderabad: Calling out the false claims of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on the implementation of the crop loan waiver in Telangana, former Minister and senior BRS leader T Harish Rao said the Congress government was deceiving both the people of Telangana and the nation. He revealed that only 50 per cent of eligible farmers with accounts in the State Bank of India (SBI), benefited from the scheme, despite fulfilling the eligibility criteria.

In an open letter to the Chief Minister following the former’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming successful implementation of the crop loan waiver, Harish Rao said the Chief Minister’s claims of waiving loans up to Rs.2 lakh for farmers were blatantly false. The Congress which promised to waive off crop loans by December 9, 2023, extended the deadline until August 15, 2024, only to fail once again.

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Citing data from an RTI request, the former Minister revealed that out of 5,74,137 farmers with loans under Rs 1 lakh from SBI, only 2,99,445 had their loans waived. Similarly, of 2,62,341 farmers with loans between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh, only 1,30,915 benefitted. Only 65,231 of the 1,65,607 farmers with loans between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh had their loans waived. “Overall, nearly 50 per cent of eligible farmers, or over 5 lakh in total, have not seen any relief,” he said.

Harish Rao criticised the government’s stringent conditions for loan waivers, which disqualified many farmers. To meet the conditions set by the Chief Minister, he said several farmers obtained private loans at high interest rates and paid loan amount excess that Rs 2 lakh to become eligible for the scheme, but did not get any relief. Adding to their woes, the Revanth Reddy government skipped disbursement of Rythu Bandhu investment support of Rs.7,500 crore to farmers for the Vanakalam (Kharif) season for the first time since its launch.

Terming Revanth Reddy’s claims far from the truth, the senior legislator urged the Chief Minister to honour his promises before making misleading statements to the nation.