Rythu Bandhu funds diverted for Congress crop loan waiver?

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao charged that the Congress government was yet again deceiving the farmers.

Hyderabad: In the guise of implementing the crop loan waiver, the Congress government is allegedly taking farmers for a ride. While, the Congress government is boasting about the crop loan waiver, it is maintaining a strategic silence on the Rythu Bandhu assistance to be extended to farmers this season.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao charged that the Congress government was yet again deceiving the farmers. Under Rythu Bandhu, the Congress government had to extend Rs.7000 crore assistance to farmers in June but these funds have been diverted for implementation of the crop loan waiver, he said.

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Over 40 lakh farmers had secured loans upto Rs.1 lakh but the Congress government was waiving off the loans of only 11 lakh farmers. More so, the crop loan waiver being done by the Congress government was meager compared to the waiver done under the KCR government in 2014 and 2018, he pointed out.

Laying threadbare the details of Rythu Bandhu assistance, he said in 2014, the KCR government had waived off Rs.1 lakh loans secured by 35 lakh farmers by spending about Rs.16,144 crore. Again in 2018, loans of 37 lakh farmers were waived off by spending about Rs.19,198 crore, he explained on X.

“As promised in its manifesto, the Congress government should waive off all the loans upto Rs.2 lakh. These apart, all eligible farmers should be extended Rythu Bandhu assistance immediately,” Rama Rao demanded.

Echoing similar opinion, former Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy asked as to how can the Congress government claim waiver off loans with Rs.6800 crore for just 11.5 lakh farmers. The Congress government should disclose the details of farmers, who secured loans upto Rs.1 lakh and those, who had obtained Rs.2 lakh loans. Further, the government should also announce the total amount required for waiving off Rs.2 lakh loans, he demanded.

A few people also found fault with the State government’s front page advertisements in different newspapers over the crop loan waiver.

Sharing an old video of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy while he was PCC president, Ravi Teja, an X user said “With the amount spend on advertisements in newspapers, another 1000 farmers loans could have waived off,”

In the video, Revanth Reddy is seen asking the then BRS government as to why government money was being spent on advertisements. “Whose property is this? There are Rs.1300 crore in BRS account, this amount should be used for advertisements,” he asked then.