Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Wednesday, 2 August, decided to resume the waiving of farm loans for farmers from Thursday.The BRS leader’s move is said to have been taken with an eye on the Assembly elections later this year.
In an official communication, the chief minister said that the resumption of waiver of farm loans was in continuation of the state government’s policy of taking care of the welfare of the farmers.
“I will stand by the farmers, regardless of what challenges I may have to face,” the chief minister said.
He said the delay in completing the farm loan waiver was on account of the slowing down of the state’s economy.
The reasons for this, according to him, were the Centre’s decision to demonetise high-value currency, the after-affect of the Covid-19 scourge and the Centre’s curbs on the state on raising funds.
Describing the curbs as a vengeful action of the centre against the state government, he said that the state had experienced difficulty in raising funds.
As the state’s finances are looking up now, it has been decided to resume waiver of the farm loans to farmers, he said.
The decision, KCR said, was taken at a high-level review meeting attended by Telangana Finance Minister T Harish Rao, Finance Department Special Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao, Chief Minister’s Special Advisor Somesh Kumar, and Agriculture Department Secretary M Raghunandan Rao.
The chief minister said: “As promised, we had continued the waiver of the farm loans, but delays occurred during the process on account of the Centre’s discriminatory policy towards state governments.”
He added: “Though the waiver of farm loans suffered some delay, the state government is continuing — without any break — farmer-friendly schemes including Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bheema, free power, and irrigation water supply.”
.
