“I have a loan of about ₹70,000 and I have not yet received any information about the waiver,” said K. Gundaiah, a farmer from Laxmareddygudem, Shankarpally mandal.
“I have a loan of ₹1.38 lakh but no word on loan waiver yet. Many in the village with ₹50,000-₹70,000 loans too, did not get any proper response. There are lot of apprehensions about the loan waiver,” said another farmer, Pratap Reddy from Kondakal village.
Reddy Naik and Thambi, both from Velgerla village of Farooqnagar mandal, Mahabubnagar district, said that they have been asking everyone – agriculture officers and bank officials, “but there is no clarity on how the loan waiver will happen to us.”
Also, farmer Sambaiah Goud from Laxmidevpally mandal, Bhadradri Kothagudem district, said he hails from an agency land and tills the endowments land. Now, he has been told he should not bother paying and he is also not eligible for loan waiver!
While the Congress Government has been tom-toming the second phase of farmers’ loan waiver, the Telangana BJP office became a venue for a group of farmers to pour out their complaints about not getting benefitted. State BJP president and Union Minister for Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy opened a helpline – 8886100097 – for them to register their grievances.
Even as Mr. Reddy and other BJP leaders were listening to the farmers at the office, the helpline began to buzz continuously as farmers from across Telangana started to tell their tales of woes on how their names are missing from the loan waiver list and charging that neither the bank nor the Agriculture officials have been receptive to their pleas.
This gave the handle to Mr. Kishan Reddy to blast Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and his government for the ‘tardy’ manner in which the crop loan waiver scheme is being implemented with ‘conditions’ and several being left out despite being eligible for the same.
Farmers as defaulters?
“The government should immediately hold gram sabhas and put up names on the notice boards on the villages giving names of the farmers eligible for the scheme and how much will be waived. The government has claimed to have completed two phases, but we have witnessed many have missed out. There is a danger of farmers being declared as defaulters and interest rates rising,” he cautioned.
The BJP leader urged the farming community to host village meetings on their own and send representations to the Chief Minister while the the party cadre too will collect the necessary information to fight their case. “The Government is celebrating the scheme’s success when majority of the farmers are clueless about it,” he charged.
“The farming community have been back-stabbled once before by the BRS government and now, the present government is following suit. Why is the government silent about enhanced financial assistance of ₹15,000 an acre, support to tenant farmers and even bonus of ₹500 an acre to paddy farmers. The promised remedial action on Dharani portal, which has hurt farmers, is not yet in sight,” he said.
Mr. Revanth Reddy has only been indulging in making big talk with little concrete action on the ground. The party would stand by the farmers and fight for their cause, he added. Farmers’ wing leader K. Sridhar Reddy and general secretary G. Premender Reddy, participated.
