HYDERABAD: Faced with criticism that the State government was going back on its promise to waive crop loans, Andhra Pradesh Communication Advisor Parakala Prabhakar on Friday clarified that the government was only saying that it would take some more time to repay the crop loans and asked the farmers to have patience.
Briefing mediapersons on the activities of his government in the last two months at the secretariat, Prabhakar said that the State government wanted to assure the farmers that the burden of crop loan would not be passed on to them and the entire loan amount would be paid by the government. Since the RBI is taking sometime to give clearance the state government was not able to do anything with regard to the crop loan, he explained.
“We want to make it clear that whether government gets help from the RBI or not, it would see that no farmer is forced to pay the loan. We have made the promise and we would fulfil it at any cost”, he remarked.
He said that the State government had given all the details asked by the RBI and was expecting a favourable decision soon. The crop loan waiver would help 97 per cent of the farmers of the state, he said.
Blaming the previous Congress government for the entire mess, he said that as the previous government had failed to submit report about the drought and floods occurred in the State in time the apex bank had refused to reschedule the crop loans.
Giving details about his government’s plan for the State, he said that in order to improve connectivity , the government is planning to create rail, water and air connectivity.
He said that NH 6 and NH 216 would be initially developed into four lane and then six and finally 10 lane road. Two lanes of this route would be developed into freight corridors, he pointed out.
To reduce load on the road inland water ways would be developed and the 421.55 kilometres long fresh water navigation canal Buckingham canal, running parallel to the Coromandel Coast of South India from Kakinada in East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh to Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu would be revived, he said
He said that the state government had withdrawn 106 cases out of the 952 cases filed during the Samaikyandhra agitation and the remaining cases are at various stages and would be withdrawn shortly. This would benefit 4,482 people, he said.