Congress Demands Waiver Of Crop Loans In Single Take

Hyderabad, March 18 (Maxim News): Former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir said State Government waive off crop loans in single take and not split them into four installments like it did in past.

Shabbir Ali, in a media statement on Wednesday, 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 off outstanding loans up to Rs. 25,000 in the 1st phase and for remaining farmers, it proposes to waive off the amount in four instalments. “TRS Govt 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. The present outstanding crop loans of nearly Rs. 25,000 crore clearly shows that the previous loan waiver scheme has failed to deliver the desired results,” he said.

The Congress leader said that the National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj has come out with interesting findings after doing a research study ‘Agrarian Distress, Coping Mechanism & Ramifications of Debt Waiver Scheme (A Study in Telangana State). He said the report, in its conclusion, stated that, “Majority of the farmers i.e., 80 per cent of Small and Marginal Farmer (SMF) and 67 per cent of Medium and Large Farmer (LMF) felt that the debt waiver scheme would have been beneficial to them, had it been a onetime settlement. Otherwise the instalment that is being released is only serving the purpose of rescheduling the loans without any provision for crop investment. Therefore, they were not completely sure about the point that the debt waiver scheme implemented in the State was beneficial to them. Surprisingly around 11 per cent of SMF and 25 per cent of LMF felt that very little relief was provided to them keeping in view of their total debts.”(Maxim News)