Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Tuesday announced that crop loans of up to Rs 2 lakh will be waived on the basis of land passbooks of farmers and that loans up to Rs 1 lakh will be waived on July 18.
His announcement came after opposition parties criticised the guidelines, under which food security cards issued by the Civil Supplies Department were declared mandatory for farmers availing of the scheme. The main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) had criticised the government for making food security cards mandatory for loan waiver and alleged that the Congress government is trying to betray the farmers.
During the conference of district Collectors, the Chief Minister clarified that food security cards will be only for identification of members of the farmer’s family.
He also announced that crop loans of up to Rs 1 lakh will be waived on July 18 and the money will be credited in the loan accounts of farmers by the evening of the same day. Celebrations will be held at Rythu Vedikas on that day along with loan waiver beneficiaries, and ministers, MLAs, MLCs and other public representatives will attend.
The Chief Minister said action would be taken against bankers if the money was deposited in accounts other than the loan accounts of the beneficiaries.
The state government had Monday issued guidelines for the implementation of the crop loan waiver. It announced that the crop loan waiver up to Rs 2 lakh will be applicable to short-term loans obtained from scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks, and district cooperative banks. Loan waiver will be applicable to loans sanctioned/renewed between December 12, 2018 and December 12 last year.
The family of each farmer will be eligible for a waiver up to Rs.2 lakh and this includes the principal and interest due as of December 12 last year.
The Commissioner and Director of the Agriculture Department would be the nodal officer for the implementation of the scheme for which the Hyderabad-based National Informatics Centre (NIC) would be the IT partner. The Director, Agriculture and the NIC will together operate a portal to implement the scheme. The portal will be equipped with features to upload and validate loan account data and to decide the eligibility. Every bank will have to appoint a bank nodal officer to implement the scheme. He will coordinate among banks, the Director, Agriculture, and the NIC.
A special cell will be created to address the problems of farmers during the implementation of the scheme. Officials have been directed to resolve the problems within 30 days.
The government last month decided to waive crop loans by spending Rs.31,000 crore. Crop loan waiver was one of the promises made by Congress in the Assembly elections held in November last year. The promise was made in the farmers’ declaration unveiled by senior party leader Rahul Gandhi at Warangal on May 6, 2022.
Revath Reddy said while the previous government in 10 years did not fulfil promises made to farmers, the Congress government was implementing its promises in eight months.
Meanwhile, BRS leader and former minister Harish Rao voiced his concern about the loan waiver guidelines, saying they focussed more on bureaucratic filters than on providing genuine relief to farmers. He questioned the reliance on ration cards to determine loan eligibility, arguing that this could disqualify many deserving farmers.
He also found fault with the government’s decision to prioritise PM Kisan data, potentially excluding a significant number of farmers. The BRS leader said that by using PM Kisan data, the government could exclude many farmers who benefited from the Rythu Bandhu scheme. He highlighted that while 68.99 lakh farmers benefited under Rythu Bandhu, only 30.36 lakh benefited through PM Kisan, leaving 39 lakh farmers potentially without loan waivers.
Harish Rao criticised the conditions related to debt rescheduling, especially for farmers who have faced severe losses due to natural disasters, saying these farmers should not be punished for circumstances beyond their control. He noted that the guidelines only cover short-term crop loans, excluding long-term crops such as sweet potato and mango plantations, affecting nearly 10 lakh acres of crops. Harish Rao emphasized that farmers who have paid their debts on time should also be eligible for loan waivers. These farmers, he said, deserve sympathy and respect.