Loan waiver scheme: Uttam hits out at BRS, BJP for misleading farming community

Hyderabad: Accusing the opposition BRS and BJP of misleading the farming community about the crop loan waiver with a mala fide intention, Telangana Minister for Irrigation and Civil Supplies N Uttam Kumar Reddy said that farmers who did not receive the loan waiver for various reasons would soon receive it.

Speaking to the media here on Monday, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that there had never before been a case of a crop loan waiver being implemented on such a huge scale all at once in the nation. He mocked the BRS's criticism of the government on the matter, claiming that it had not even helped farmers in the event of a natural disaster.

Uttam Kumar Reddy claimed that although the previous BRS government had twice implemented loan waivers, the amount allocated for them was insufficient to do more than adjust the interest rates on the farmers' loans. This made their government the first in the nation to implement crop loan waivers in such a short period of time, he added.

Technical errors reason for delay in loan waiver implementation

Giving specifics about the farmers who have not received waiver relief thus far, the minister stated that the reasons were not errors in Aadhaar numbers pertaining to 1.2 lakh bank accounts, mismatches between Aadhaar and bank passbook in the case of 1.61 lakh accounts, 1.5 lakh accounts for errors made by bankers, 4.83 lakh accounts because ration cards were not provided, and another 8 lakh accounts for higher outstanding amounts more than Rs 2 lakh. All those farmers who did not receive a loan waiver were informed that they would only receive waiver benefits after repaying amounts exceeding the family limit.

Grievance centres to come up in each mandal headquarters

Uttam Kumar Reddy also said that grievance centres would be established by the government in each mandal headquarters to receive and handle complaints. To address concerns over loan waivers for the 2014–18 and 2018–23 phases, the previous administration, however, did not even seek to establish such grievance cells. Referring to the letter that BRS working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) wrote to Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, the leaders of the AICC, he termed it as a "publicity stunt.”

“The BJP and BRS are unable to process the loan waiver's execution in a short amount of time. The Congress government set an example by implementing it despite the previous government's Rs 8 lakh crore debt,” said Minister for Prohibition and Excise Jupally Krishna Rao said.