BJP Demands White Paper On Crop Loan Waiver

Alleging that the Congress government was deceiving the farmers of the State in the crop loan waivers issue, BJLP leader Alleti Maheshwar Reddy today demanded the release of a white paper detailing how many farmers had benefited from the scheme so far.

The BJP staged a protest against the "poor" implementation of crop loan waiver, in front of the RDO office at the district headquarters in Nirmal. The protest was organised and led by Reddy, who was joined by MP Godam Nagesh, farmers, and other party leaders and workers, and the protesters raised slogans against the Congress government and the Chief Minister.

Speaking on the occasion, Reddy claimed that while 60 lakh farmers were eligible for loan waivers, only 22 lakh had been granted relief, and that only Rs 17,000 crore of the Rs 49,000 crore loan waiver that was promised had been done. He also condemned the State government's imposition of conditions like ration cards and Aadhaar cards for farmers to avail themselves of the loan waivers, and demanded an immediate waiver for all farmers. He said that if the State government did not waive off all loans of up to Rs 2 lakh by the end of this month, he would begin an indefinite hunger strike at Indira Park in Hyderabad, and vowed to continue fighting for the farmers until the loan waivers were fully implemented.

The BJP leader also questioned the credibility of the Chief Minister, who claimed that all the loan waiver exercise was fully complete, despite his own ministers admitting otherwise.

"The Chief Minister's broken promises have brought bad luck to the State. BJP leaders will perform rituals in temples across Telangana to remove this curse," he said.