HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said that the State government would pay money directly to the farmers under crop loan waiver scheme. The banks were asked to freeze the bank accounts of the farmers.
The government would soon send letters to the farmers indicating their debt position, the chief minister announced in the Assembly on Sunday. The farm loans would be waived up to Rs 1 lakh per farmer, Rao said.
The chief minister said that the government would send the money directly to the farmers. The farmers could take fresh loans from the banks for agriculture activities, Rao said. He said that the modalities for the farm loan waiver would be finalised soon.
The crop loans would be waived in three to four instalments.
Rao pointed out that the Congress which promised to waive crop loans in single instalment failed to do so in several states. “Even AICC president Rahul Gandhi announced during electioneering that if a Congress CM fails to waive crop loans in a single instalment within one month of coming to power that CM will be replaced. Recently, the former CM of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan sarcastically told Rahul Gandhi that the Congress should have changed eight CMs in the last eight months,” he said.
“The TRS assured to waive the loans in instalments. We have committed to that.”
Money for cataract surgeries
He also announced that the State government would pay money for undergoing cataract operations to the aged people, who were screened under Kanti Velugu.“Even before the State government started conducting cataract operations, some newspapers blamed it for the failure of the operations. There will be failures here and there in cataract operations. Following the newspaper reports, we took a decision. If the government conducts the operations, it will get bad reputation. We will give the required money to the patients to undergo cataract surgery,” he said.
Aasara for 7 lakh more people
The chief minister also said that the eligibility age for Aasara pensions would soon be reduced to 57 years. The data is being collected and around six to seven lakh more people to benefit from Aasara pensions, he said.