The Telangana state cabinet has approved a proposal to waive up to two lakh rupees worth of crop loans for each farmer in the state by August 15. This is to fulfil another promise made by the Congress ahead of the Assembly elections last year. After a meeting of the State Cabinet held yesterday in Hyderabad, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, briefing the media, said that crop loans taken between December 12th, 2018 and December 9th, 2023, will be eligible to avail of the waiver. He said the government will issue guidelines on eligibility criteria for crop loan waivers through a government order (GO) soon. He said preliminary estimates show that the government needs to spend 31 thousand crore rupees for the crop loan waiver, and it is expected to benefit nearly 40 lakh farmers.
The Chief Minister further said the Cabinet also approved setting up a Cabinet sub-committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister M. Bhatti Vikramarka to prepare guidelines for the implementation of Rythu Bharosa in the place of Rythu Bandhu, with a deadline to submit its report by July 15. Ministers T. Nageshwar Rao, D. Sridhar Babu, and P. Srinivas Reddy will be the other members of the subcommittee. The Chief Minister further said the crop loan waiver will be applicable to crop loans taken between December 12th, 2018 and December 9th, 2023, a period that was not covered by the previous government’s loan waiver. The Chief Minister also said the previous BRS government implemented a crop loan waiver of one lakh rupees twice when it came to power in 2014 and 2018. In its first term, the BRS government waived off crop loans amounting to 16 thousand crore rupees with a cut-off date of March 31st, 2014, and in its second term, it waived off crop loans amounting to 12 thousand crore rupees with a cut-off date of December 11th, 2018.
Disclaimer: This press release is sourced from News On AIR, Prasar Bharti and Press Information Bureau India (PIB).