Hyderabad: Congress demands crop loan waiver in single take

Hyderabad: Former minister and ex-Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Wednesday demanded that the State government waive off crop loans in a single take and not in four instalments.

Shabbir Ali said that the guidelines for Crop Loan Waiver Scheme issued by the State government on Tuesday were not comprehensive and promises no major relief for farmers.

He said that the government plans to waive outstanding loans up to Rs 25,000 in the first phase and for remaining farmers, it proposes to waive off the amount in four instalments.

"TRS government is repeating the mistake it committed while waiving off crop loans in the past. Crop loans of nearly Rs 17,000 crore were waived off in four installments and it did not benefit the farmers.

They faced harassment from the banks continuously for four years and even after loan waiver, they could not get rid themselves off their debts," he said.

According to a report majority of the farmers i.e., 80 per cent are small and marginal farmers. They felt that the debt waiver scheme would have been beneficial to them, had it been a onetime settlement.