BRS amps up pressure on Cong govt, calls for State-wide protest tomorrow

Hyderabad: Alleging that not even 40 per cent of the farmers got the loan waiver benefit, BRS has called for a state-wide protest in mandal and constituency headquarters on August 22, demanding loan waiver for all farmers without any conditions.

The BRS working president KT Rama Rao said that a large number of farmers across the state were worried because they were not getting the benefit of loan waiver from the Congress government. On the one hand, the Chief Minister was saying that loans up to Rs 2 lakh were waived, but the Ministers were saying that the loan waiver has not been completed yet and the program will continue.

The BRS leader asked why they were making the farmers feel anxious and distressed. He reminded that the Congress party had clearly promised to apply loan waiver up to Rs 2 lakh to all before the elections. At the time of election, the farm loan waiver was estimated at Rs 40,000 crore but the cabinet had only sanctioned Rs 31,000 crore. Only Rs 26,000 crorewas approved in the budget, and only Rs 18,000 crore was spent and the farmers were left in the dark. KTR said that they had information from the field that at least 40 per cent of the farmers were not benefited from the loan waiver. He demanded that the state government make a clear statement to this effect that the government should immediately waive off loans up to Rs 2 lakh to each farmer.