Hyderabad: 6.4 lakh families benefited from the second phase of loan waiver
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday launched the second phase of his government’s crop loan waiver scheme with an outlay of over Rs 6,198 crore, which will benefit about 6.4 lakh farmer families. According to the chief minister, this is important as the government is moving towards relieving farmers of loans up to Rs 2 lakh before August 15, the month India also gained Independence.
Revanth Reddy said proving the BRS wrong, the government had waived farmers’ loans up to Rs 1 lakh in the first phase and loans up to Rs 1.5 lakh were waived on Tuesday. He alleged that the previous BRS government could not properly fulfill its promise of waiving a total loan of Rs 25,000 crore during its 10-year rule. Revanth Reddy said Telangana has set a record of waiving loans worth Rs 31,000 crore. He said this is something that no state has implemented since Independence. The CM said when corporate loans become non-performing assets, banks resort to one-time settlement by making deductions. He said his government was carrying out “one-time settlement” to protect the self-respect of farmers.
He claimed that his government had paid Rs 43,000 crore as interest in six months on loans taken by the previous BRS regime. He also pointed out that it was the Congress governments at the Centre that implemented path-breaking measures like the Green Revolution, irrigation projects like Nagarjuna Sagar, nationalisation of banks, Food Security Act, farm loan waiver of Rs 72,000 crore and providing subsidy on seeds and fertilisers. The CM also accused the previous government of mortgaging the state by taking huge loans. He said the Congress government was making efforts to bail out the state from the debt burden. He said the opposition parties had ridiculed the government and challenged that it would not be able to do so, but the government has proved that it is a government which fulfils the promises made before the elections unlike its predecessor.
