Hyderabad: Call for statewide protest against ‘betrayal of farmers’
Hyderabad: Attacking the Congress government for committing the biggest betrayal of farmers in the state, BRS Working President KT Rama Rao on Wednesday announced that the party workers will join the fight for the rights of farmers against the government. Addressing a press conference with several party leaders at Telangana Bhavan, he said that BRS will launch protests across the state and organise dharnas at mandal centres to press for the demand of unconditional loan waiver up to Rs two lakh for all farmers. If the government fails to respond positively to the demand, BRS will not hesitate to call for jail bharo programme in the next phase and will give arrests across the state in support of farmers’ demand for loan waiver as promised.
The farmers are agitated as the state government has disappointed them in the matter of loan waiver. The state government has unleashed a reign of terror by registering cases against them for staging protests. A case has been registered against them under provisions of Sections 126, 189 and 223 of the Indian Penal Code in Adilabad. This can lead to severe penalties and imprisonment of up to seven years. The situation is tense, with farmers feeling that their struggles are not being adequately addressed by the authorities. Many are frustrated as they still face huge debts despite the government’s assurances of implementing the waiver. Quoting Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s cabinet colleagues, he said Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has admitted in truth that farmers have received only Rs 7,500 crore so far under the loan waiver programme.
Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy had said on record that the loan waiver amount is yet to reach the accounts of over 17 lakh farmers. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao had claimed that they have completed the waiver process and this is in stark contrast to the confessions of other ministers. He reminded that the Chief Minister had initially announced a loan waiver of Rs 49,000 crore under the crop loan waiver, which was later reduced to Rs 31,000 crore and then to Rs 17,000 crore. But Bhatti Vikramarka admitted that the total waiver given to farmers was only Rs 7500 crore, which led to outrage across the state. He said that BRS officials and elected representatives are reaching out to farmers at the village level and gathering information. As part of this exercise, they also met farmers in the native village of the Chief Minister, where it was found that less than 30 percent of the farmers got loan waiver in the last three phases.
