Telangana Congress president and chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday announced release of Rs 5,644.24 crore towards the waiver of crop loan arrears of 4.46 lakh farmers up to Rs 2 lakh in the third and final phase.
With this, Revanth Reddy claimed his government has fulfilled its promise of waiving all the pending crop loan arrears as part of its six guarantees by August 15.
“We have fulfilled our commitment by crediting around Rs 18,000 crore into the loan accounts of farmers in a span of 27 days in three phases,” he said.
As per the official statement released by the government, crop loans accounting for Rs 6,089.93 crore belonging to 11.50 lakh farmers, whose loan arrears were up to Rs 1 lakh was waived on July 18.
In the second phase, the government released Rs 6,190.01 crore for waiving the crop loans up to Rs 1.50 lakh of 6.40 lakh farmers, on July 30, an official statement said, adding that in all, 22.37 lakh farmers were relieved of their debt burden to the extent of Rs 17,934 crore.
Surprisingly, the Revanth Reddy government itself announced that crop loans worth Rs 31,000 crore would be waived at one go to benefit farmers, up to a maximum limit of Rs 2 lakh each.
Now, the chief minister says all crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh were waived and the total burden of Rs 17,934 crore was relieved.
“This is nothing but a big cheating by Revanth Reddy. He is not fit to be a chief minister at all. In the history of Telangana or combined state, there has never been a more disgraceful CM like Revanth Reddy,” Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader T Harish Rao said.
He said despite swearing on gods, Revanth Reddy did not keep his promises and instead made false accusations against the BRS.
“Before the assembly elections, Revanth Reddy promised to waive Rs 40,000 crores in farmer loans by December 9 as a gift for Sonia Gandhi’s birthday. When he couldn’t fulfill this, he staged another drama before the Parliament elections,” he pointed out.
Revanth Reddy then claimed he would waive Rs 31,000 crores by August 15, which is Rs 9,000 crores less than his original promise.
“In our first term, we waived Rs 1 lakh in loans for 35 lakh farmers, which cost nearly Rs 17,000 crores. If the Congress government is really waiving Rs 2 lakh loan, how can there be only 22 lakh farmers, and how can it cost just Rs 17,934 crore?” he asked.