Telangana’s ambitious crop loan waiver scheme has garnered widespread attention but remains largely unimplemented. Despite assurances, many farmers have yet to see their debts cleared, raising concerns over the scheme’s efficacy. Critics argue that the state government’s promises amount to more talk than action, leaving farmers in financial distress.
While the BRS is accusing the Congress of implementing the scheme partially, the latter blames the former for the plight of the farmers, which drove them to raise crop loans.
Is the Telangana Government’s flagship programme of ₹2 lakh crop loan waiver all sizzle and no steak or has it really addressed the needy and genuine farmers?
While the BRS is accusing the Congress of implementing the scheme partially, the latter blames the former for the plight of the farmers, which drove them to raise crop loans. The Congress insists that it had implemented the scheme several times better than the similar loan waiver schemes of the BRS government.
It has been saying since the beginning that the scheme would not be available to the well-off farmers. The BRS accused the state government of excluding those who are employees, pensioners, income tax assesses and those who do not possess ration cards.
Though these claims were refuted, the fact remains that the number of farmers had been reduced drastically to 22.37 lakh and the amount paid was ₹17,934 crore.
BRS’ offensive on Revanth
The BRS has called for protests across the state on Thursday, 22 August, which has found good traction with the farmers. Stung by the protests, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy advised the farmers to go to the collector’s office if any of them were not covered under the crop loan waiver scheme. He said if they stage protests and shout slogans, they will get nothing, except getting tired.
Ever since the BRS lost the Assembly elections in December, it has been pouncing on Revanth Reddy’s government, demanding why it was not implementing the six promises that it said it would do in 100 days of assuming power, mainly the ₹2 lakh crop loan waiver.
The tone and tenor of the BRS leaders while criticising the state government appeared more an expression of their enmity to Revanth Reddy than fighting on behalf of the farmers. The chief minister too appeared to have harboured similar opinion about the BRS honchos, as he kept using abusive language against them.
It all started when former BRS minister T Harish Rao said he would resign from the Assembly and retire from politics if Revanth Reddy keeps his word of waiving crop loans of farmers up to ₹2 lakh. To which, Revanth had responded, and asked Harish Rao to get ready to renounce politics as he was going to implement the loan waiver by Independence Day.
Ration card— a must
Subsequently the Congress government announced the scheme and the agriculture department released the guidelines on 16 July. The department said that only short-term loans up to ₹2 lakh taken from commercial, regional rural banks, District Cooperative Central Banks and Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) would be waived. The scheme was applicable to those who took loans between 12 December, 2018 and 13 December, 2023.
The department said that it would waive the principal and the interest up to ₹2 lakh only. It said that it would base its beneficiary list on the details provided in the ration cards of the farmers, implying that possession of a ration card is a must. The loan waiver would be available to those farmers whose Aadhaar number in the loan account was reconciled with the ration cards.
The department said the self-help groups, loans on more than one name and tenant farmers are not eligible. The loan waiver scheme was not available for the rescheduled loans and the loans taken by companies and institutions. Prime Minister Kisan Samman Yojana’s eligibility criteria would be taken into consideration to the extent possible in deciding the beneficiaries.
As the government began implementing the scheme in phases, the BRS began stepping up its attack on it for the way the scheme was being implemented as it was leaving out a large number of eligible farmers from its ambit. The BRS said the Congress had made mole hill out of a mountain.
The loan waiver
The first phase of loan waiver was done for 1.5 lakh farmers who took loans less than ₹1 lakh on 18 July (₹6,089 crore), followed by 6.4 lakh farmers for loans up to ₹1.5 lakh on 30 July (₹6,190 crore) and finally for 4.46 lakh farmers whose loans were up to ₹2 lakh by 15 August (₹5,644 crore).
The government admitted that several eligible farmers had been left out and it was due to technical problems. Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswar Rao on Friday, 23 August, said 4,24,873 farmers had been left out from ₹2 lakh crop loan waiver. Earlier irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the state government was collecting information to ensure loan waiver for them.
The technical reasons that prevented crediting of farm loan waiver money to included incorrect Aadhar card numbers and mismatch of names of the beneficiaries with those on the bank accounts. Some farmers provided 11 digits or 13 digits instead of standard 12 digits.
The government said each mandal agricultural officer has been instructed to collect and upload details of the farmers not included in the loan waiver scheme for the government to waive the loans. Said Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy on Friday, 23 August, that the government was yet to waive crop loans of a total amount of ₹12,000 crore.
He said that about 4.83 lakh farmers had no ration cards and agriculture officers had been asked to visit their houses and collect the details for the government to waive their loans, admitting indirectly that those who did not possess ration cards had been left out. Further, for loans exceeding ₹2 lakh, the government would pay up to ₹2 lakh after the farmer pays the excess amount to the banker.
As more reports of the farmers being left out began pouring in, BRS working president KT Rama Rao joined forces with Harish Rao in launching a pincer attack on Revanth Reddy.
Finally, when Revanth Reddy announced on Independence Day that he had cleared ₹2 lakh crop loans of farmers in the state, the two BRS leaders went for Revanth Reddy’s jugular saying that what he had done was salami-slicing – reducing the number of the farmers drastically in phases to limit the state government’s liability.
Revanth Reddy responds
Addressing a public meeting at Wyra in erstwhile Khammam district on I-Day, the chief minister said the ₹2 lakh crop loan waiver was over and that the state government had credited ₹17,934 crore into the farmers accounts under three phases. Even as the BRS was crying foul that nearly half of the farmers were left out, the state government allowed fresh ammunition to the BRS with its flip-flop on the amount that had been credited to the farmers’ accounts.
All hell broke loose when Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said that though the government had transferred ₹18,000 crore to the bankers they had only credited ₹7,500 crore.
The deputy chief minister clarified that what he had said was, the bankers had sanctioned loans of about ₹7,500 crore after the state government waived crop loans of farmers and that in the three months period till now, the bankers had given loans up to ₹17,300 crore only.
But by then the damage had been done, and several newspapers and channels failed to take the revised version.
KTR joins the protests
The BRS said only 22.37 lakh farmers received ₹17,934 crore under crop loan waiver scheme. KTR said it was surprising to note how Revanth Reddy, at the Wyra public meeting, claimed to have completed the loan waiver totally at a time when nearly half of the farmers were left out.
He even dared Revanth Reddy to prove that crop loan waiver was implemented fully at any village, including Kondareddypally, his native village and that he would retire from politics. He said the BRS had received close to one lakh complaints that their loans had not been waived.
KTR and Harish Rao together tried to take the wind out of Congress sails describing how ₹49,000 crore which the Congress government had said was committed to spend on loan waiver had brought it down to ₹17,934 crore. Initially the Congress said it would require ₹49,000 crore, then reduced it to ₹40,000 crore and eventually slashed it further to ₹ 17,934 crore and finally credited only ₹7,500 crore.
The argument of the BRS is that when KCR implemented ₹1 lakh crop loan waiver during his first term, it had cost him ₹17,000 crore for 35 lakh farmers. If the Congress had waived the crop loans up to ₹2 lakh, how could the amount be just ₹17,934 crore and farmers be only 22 lakh.
The government says it had waived ₹18,000 crore crop loans within seven to eight months of coming to power, compared to the BRS government which took several years even to waive ₹1 lakh crop loans. The conflagration is refusing to die down. #hydkhabar
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