Telangana govt will pay farm loan interest: Harish
Karimnagar: Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Monday said the State government will pay the interest component on farm loans, and ryots who had taken Rs one lakh loan, need not worry about interest since the government will take care of it. Stating that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had already issued instructions to bankers […]
Karimnagar: Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Monday said the State government will pay the interest component on farm loans, and ryots who had taken Rs one lakh loan, need not worry about interest since the government will take care of it.
Stating that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had already issued instructions to bankers in this regard, the Minister said the bankers were also instructed to provide loans to farmers without collecting interest. Farmer loans up to Rs 25,000 had already been waived and loans up to Rs 50,000 would be waived within a week, he said, adding that loans up to Rs 1 lakh would be waived by March.
Speaking at a farmers’ Atmiya Sammelan in Huzurabad, the Minister said since the Chief Minister was himself a farmer, he introduced several schemes for the welfare of farmers. Besides 24 hours power supply, Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima and other schemes were being implemented and Rythu Vedhikas were also constructed across the State, he said.
In the last three years, Rs 43,036 crore was spent on Rythu Bandhu for farmers. “Together with Rythu Bima premium and free power supply, the government has spent about Rs one lakh crore on the welfare of farmers. This is in addition to the amount spent on Mission Kakatiya and construction of irrigation projects,” he said, adding that the government paid Rs 40,000 crore to the electricity department for the free power supplied to farmers.
Talking about farm loan waiver, Harish Rao informed that in the last term, the State government waived Rs 17,000 crore farm loans. Now, it requires Rs 23,000 crore. Farmers, whose loan amount up to Rs 50,000 was waived, could get fresh loans from banks.
Though the State government has promised to provide a Rs 2,016 pension to the people having 57 years, it was delayed due to the Covid pandemic. State was reeling under a financial crisis during the last 18 months. Despite crises, the government provided ten kilograms of rice and pulses to the poor. While Chandrashekhar Rao was helping farmers by giving subsidies, the union government led by BJP was imposing a burden on the farming community.
Earlier, farmers used to spend Rs 3,000 to till an acre of land. However, it has been enhanced to Rs 6,000 due to the increase in the price of diesel. Ryots have to spend an additional amount of Rs 500 to harvest the crop by engaging harvesters.
The price of diesel has hiked to 100 after the BJP government came into power at the centre. The price would be spurt to Rs 150 if BJP was voted to power.
Instead of creating new jobs, the BJP government was abolishing jobs by selling off public sector undertakings such as BSNL, LIC, Railways and others. About 2 lakh jobs were abolished in Railways.
Referring to BJP leader Eatala Rajender’s comments that Harish Rao was making tall promises, the Minister informed that he sanctioned roads, drainages, Mahila Bhavans to self-help groups.
Rajender, who worked as MLA for 18 years and Minister for seven years, has done nothing for the development of the Huzurabad constituency.
Though the Chief Minister has sanctioned 4,000 double bedroom houses to the Huzurabad constituency, BJP leader failed to construct a single house, he said and promised to construct 5,000 houses if TRS candidate Gellu Srinivas Yadav was elected in by-polls.
BJP leaders, who were making tall promises while touring Huzurabad constituency, were not talking about reducing diesel, petrol, and cooking gas prices. If BJP leaders were sincere for the welfare of local people, they should sanction a Rs 2,000 crore package by convincing the Union government.
Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today on Telegram everyday. Click the link to subscribe.
Click to follow Telangana Today Facebook page and Twitter .
