"Not even a seventh of farm loans waived off in Telangana," BRS's KTR slams Congress govt

"We are fighting for the farmers. Congress party had promised that on 9 December, all loans up to Rs 2 lakh will be waived off. But it has been 8 months now but now even not 1/7th of the loans have been waived off," KTR told ANI.

He questioned Chief Minister Revanth Reddy's claim that his government had completed the waiving off of all farm loans as promised.

"Deputy CM, who also happens to be the State Finance Minister, has come on record and said that only Rs 7,000 Crores have been disbursed. Out of the total Rs 49,000 Crores that was initially stated, only Rs 7,000 Crores has been completed. What is even more interesting and exasperating for us is that the CM claims that 100% loan waiver is done," he said.

"So, we are questioning the Congress Government. Select any constituency and let's go there. If there is a 100% loan waiver in even one of the locations, and farmers say so, I would resign and quit politics then and there.

"We have not received an answer to this date. That is why, we tell the Congress Government to announce a date by which they would disburse 100% of the amount. As the principal opposition party, we are telling them to fulfil the promises, the 6 guarantees, that they had promised," he added.

The Congress had promised a complete loan waiver of up to Rs 2 lakh for farmers as part of its 'Warangal Rythu Declaration', ahead of the Assembly elections. The party had said that if they came to power, it would waive off farmers' loans of Rs 2 lakh per acre.

However, after coming to power, the government split the waiver scheme into three instalments, which irked the farmers in dismay.

Meanwhile, BRS held protests in all Mandal and Constituency centres on Thursday, demanding an unconditional loan waiver for all farmers in the state.

BRS MLA T Harish Rao on Thursday slammed the Congress government in Telangana for "not waiving off" the farmers' loans.

"Before the assembly elections, the Revanth Reddy government promised to waive off loans of Rs 2 lakhs to farmers. They promised to waive off loans on 9th December. But they did not waive off loans on 9th December," Rao told ANI.

"Later, in the parliamentary elections, they went to every district and promised to waive off loans by the 15th of August. They looted the votes of farmers in the parliamentary elections as well. Today, 15th August is over. The loan waiver has not happened yet. Even half of the farmers have not got their loans waived," he added. (ANI)