Rythu Bandhu funds diverted for farmer loan waiver, alleges KTR

Hyderabad: BRS working president KT Rama Rao said on Thursday that the Revanth Reddy government was once again cheating Telangana farmers in the name of a loan waiver, stating that the Rs 7,000 crore Rythu Bandhu funds, which are to be given in June, have been diverted for the loan waiver. Rao took to X to target the government on the loan waiver scheme.

He said, “When over 40 lakh farmers had taken loans worth Rs 1 lakh, how had the government selected only 11 lakh farmers? Compared to the KCR government’s loan waivers in 2014 and 2018, only a quarter of farmers are eligible. In 2014 itself, the KCR government waived loans up to Rs 16,144 crore, benefiting about 35 lakh farmers. In 2018, for a loan waiver within the same Rs 1 lakh, an amount of Rs 19,198 crore was used; the total number of beneficiaries was about 37 lakh.”

The BRS leader demanded the government waive all crop loans of Rs 2 lakh immediately, as promised in the Congress Manifesto, and the ‘Rythu Bandhu’ should be released to all eligible farmers.