Former TPCC president demands allocation of funds for overdue farm waivers

Hyderabad: Congress MP & former TPCC president Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday demanded that the Telangana government make sufficient allocations to waive off the long pending farm loans.

In an open letter to the Chief Minister, Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that the State Government allocate Rs. 20,000 Crore for assured farm loan waiver, Rs. 4,000 crores for dues of women SHGs, and Rs. 3,270 to clear fee reimbursement dues.

"It has been deeply concerning that your government has repeatedly failed to honour the financial assurances given to farmers, women, and students. The State Government has delayed the release of dues for various schemes affecting lakhs of beneficiaries. While none of the welfare schemes announced by the government were fully implemented, many important schemes remained ineffective because the funds were not released to clear the dues. The annual budget for Telangana for 2023–24 is being presented in the first week of February. Since this will be the last budget of your government before the next assembly elections, we demand that the State Govt make sufficient allocations to ensure the loans are waived," he said in the open letter.

Speaking about the Crop Loan Waiver Scheme, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Chief Minister had promised a farm loan waiver of up to Rs. 1 lakh to Telangana farmers on December 2, 2018. However, he said crop loans up to Rs. 35,000 have been cleared. "We demand you allocate and release Rs. 20,000 crores immediately for completion of Rs. 1 lakh loan waiver for all farmers in Telangana, as more than 20 lakh farmers and their families are still waiting for the loan waiver," he added.

The Congress MP said that the promise of waivers of agricultural loans up to Rs 1 lakh has been pending since the 2018 Assembly elections. However, despite repeated requests by the Congress party and other financial experts, the KCR government only waived off part of the loan in a single take. Consequently, bank accounts of lakhs of farmers have been classified as non-performing assets by the banks.

Further, Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the state government had removed nearly 10 lakh farmers from the list of beneficiaries on the pretext that they borrowed from multiple banks.

"This is a huge injustice, as all farmers deserve Rs. 1 lakh from the crop loan waiver scheme, even if they borrowed from more than one bank. We demanded that the government is just to farmers," he added.

Concerning the arrests of women SHGs, he said that the state government had not released the arrears of nearly Rs. 4,250 crores for the women's Self Help Groups (SHGs). Further, not a single rupee has been paid towards the interests of the loans taken by the SHGs of the State. The government did not release Rs. 2200 crore of interest to 3.85 lakh SHGs of the rural areas and Rs. 750 crores to the 1.52 lakh SHGs of urban areas. Overall, the government owes Rs. 3000 crores to the SHGs of the State under the Vaddi Leni Runalu (Interest-Free Loan) scheme.

"The state government also owes Rs. 5000 to Rs. 10000 of interest each to 66 lakh members of the SHGs of the State. Each SHG must get Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1.50 lakh from the government. Further, the state government has retained Rs. 1,256 crores of premiums paid by the SHGs towards insurance under the Abhaya Hastam scheme. The State Govt must allocate at least Rs. 4,256 to clear all these dues in the next budget," he demanded.

Mentioning the fee reimbursement dues, he said that the state owes nearly Rs. 3,270 crores to 15 lakh students of Telangana.

"The TRS Govt did not release any amount towards Fee Reimbursement since 2020-21. There were Rs. 828 crore dues in 2020-21, while not a single rupee has been released for the academic years 2021-22 and 2022-23. The State Govt owes Rs. 3,270 crores to private colleges towards the fee reimbursement of over 15 lakh students of nearly 3,600 junior, engineering, degree, pharmacy and other professional and non-professional colleges. More than 850 junior colleges, 350 degree colleges, 150 PG colleges and hundreds of engineering, pharmacy and vocational colleges have shut down their operations since 2014 due to the non-release of Fee Reimbursement," he said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that the state government take the issue of fee reimbursement seriously as it pertains to the lives and careers of around 15 lakh students and their families. "The lack of seriousness in releasing these funds can be seen from the fact that in the year 2021-22, the finance department released just one crore rupees and kept Rs 2,183 crore pending. Not a single rupee was released in the year 2022-23," he said.

The Congress MP said that the State Government must ensure allocations of funds to release the entire Fee Reimbursement dues in a single take in the 2023-24 budget.