Hyderabad: Former minister and ex-Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir demanded that the State Government waive off crop loans in a single take and not split them into four installments like it did in the past.
Shabbir Ali, in a media statement on Wednesday, said that the guidelines for the 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 installments. “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 percent of Small and Marginal Farmer (SMF) and 67 percent of Medium and Large Farmer (LMF) felt that the debt waiver scheme would have been beneficial to them, had it been a one-time settlement. Otherwise, the installment 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 percent of SMF and 25 percent of LMF felt that very little relief was provided to them keeping in view of their total debts.”
SOURCE (NSS)
