NALGONDA: A heated argument broke out between Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy and TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy over the State government’s loan waiver scheme during a preparatory meeting on the regulated farming policy in Nalgonda on Sunday. The Minister, while addressing the gathering, said that the State’s crop loan waiver scheme for farmers was one of a kind and that no other state in the country was implementing the same.
Uttam, who shared the dais with Jagadish at the meeting, interrupted the latter’s speech and confronted him about the loan waiver figures. “Where is it (the scheme) being implemented? A majority of the farmers are still waiting for the waiver. The State government is cheating them with their false promises,” Uttam argued.
Offended by the interruption, Jagadish told Uttam that several farmer welfare schemes, like Rythu bandhu and farmer insurance, were being implemented in Telangana. “Why aren’t states led by the Congress party not implementing these schemes?” he asked. “The Congress has been ruling a few of those states for decades now. But it has still not managed to introduce schemes like these,” he said.
Further interrogating the Nalgonda MP on why he had walked out of the Assembly session during which Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had presented the irrigation proposal, the Minister said, “You (and the party representatives) escaped, citing you were not prepared.” Uttam retorted, “The TRS has been lying for ages, and it has not stopped now.” The Minister then asked Uttam why he had interfered during his speech. “You don’t even have the basic courtesy of waiting for someone’s speech to end. This is not the Assembly or Parliament,” he said. Nalgonda DCCB chairman G Mahendar Reddy, Nalgonda MLA K Bhupal Reddy and others tried to stop the sparring. The Minister continued his speech after Uttam returned to his seat.