Watch: Agricultural minister Thummala faces farmers’ wrath in Khammam; abuses them

The incident occurred when a large number of farmers, activists of Left parties and Telangana Rashtra Rythu Sangham arrived at the district collectorate to stage a protest seeking an unconditional crop loan waiver

Khammam: Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao on Tuesday abused farmers for questioning him over the government’s failure over crop loan waiver and even tried to manhandle a farmer.

The incident occurred when a large number of farmers, activists of Left parties and Telangana Rashtra Rythu Sangham arrived at the district collectorate to stage a protest seeking an unconditional crop loan waiver.

The Minister who was leaving the collectorate after a meeting with the district Collector was surrounded by the farmers at the main gate.

As soon the Minister got out of his car to speak with the protesting farmers, they started shouting slogans. Irked at the slogans he refused to speak, but was convinced by CPI leader B Hemanth Rao to give clarity over the crop loan waiver issue.

The Minister, who spoke harshly with the CPI leader, also tried to grab an activist who continued shouting slogans and one of the protesters questioned the Minister why he was abusing them.

Later addressing the gathering, Nageswara Rao said crop loans up to Rs.2 lakh would be waived and any loan amount above that limit had to be cleared by the farmers to regularise the loan and to avail a fresh loan.

Speaking to the media, Telangana Rashtra Rythu Sangham district general secretary Bhukya Veerabhadram said crop loans in the district were not waived off fully. Loans of only 40 percent farmers were waived while loans of 60 percent farmers were yet to be waived.

The State government started taking applications from farmers whose loans were not waived only after the farmers’ organisations started protesting but failed to clearly state that loans up to Rs 2 lakh would be waived.

Instead the government was asking farmers to clear the loan amount above Rs 2 lakh, he said warning that if government failed to address the issue, serious protests would be staged across the State.

Sangham leaders P Sudarshan Rao and Hemanth Rao said that due to the imposition of many restrictions in GO 567 for loan waiver, the farmers were unable to get loan waiver. It was not right to reduce the number of farmers by imposing conditions in the implementation of loan waiver, they said.

There was confusion among the farmers as Ministers were making contradictory statements over the issue every day. The government had announced that Rs 17,933 crore was deposited in the accounts of 22 lakh farmers.

Prior to the elections, the Congress had promised to waive loans up to Rs 2 lakh in one go, but in practice, only 40 percent farmers were benefitted so far, they said.

In Khammam district, though 3,71,157 farmers were in the eligible list, loans of 1,15,343 farmers were waived in three installments. As 42 lakh farmers were in the state, loans of only 22 lakh farmers were waived. In Khammam district 2.55 lakh were waiting for loan waiver, they added.