HYDERABAD: The third phase of crop loan waiver will start from Thursday and continue up to the second week of September, during which the State government will waive loans worth Rs 19,000 crore.
The State government announced the waiver in 2018 on loans of up to Rs 1 lakh per farmer. There have been two phases of loan waiver so far.
Stating that the welfare of farmers and the development of the agriculture sector is the main objective of the State government, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday said that he has decided to resume the farmer loan waiver programme from Thursday. Despite many challenges, the government remains committed to the welfare of farmers, KCR said.
He said that the crop loan waiver implementation was delayed due to the economic slowdown caused by the Centre’s demonetisation decision, the impact of Covid on the State’s economy and the vindictive attitude adopted by the Centre by not releasing the FRBM loans to Telangana, which contributed to the State fiscal deficit.
With the State’s economic conditions now healthy, KCR decided to restart the crop loan waiver. He said that the State government was sincerely implementing schemes like Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima, and free power to farmers. On the lines of Rythu Bandhu, the crop loan waiver benefits too would be deposited directly into the bank accounts of the farmers.