ADILABAD: BJP Legislature Party leader and Nirmal MLA Aleti Maheshwar Reddy on Monday wrote an open letter to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy expressing concern over what he alleged was the failure of the state government to implement crop loan waiver in the district.
In the letter, Maheshwar Reddy posed 13 questions to the CM and demanded a white paper on the status of the loan waiver. He also challenged Revanth to an open debate on the loan waiver and said that the date, time and place could be decided by the chief minister.
Speaking to the media in Nirmal, Maheshwar Reddy accused the state government of not fulfilling its election promise to waive crop loans and of evading responsibility. The BJP MLA recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mentioned during an election meeting in Maharashtra on October 5 the failure of the Congress government in Telangana to fulfil its loan waiver promise.
Maheshwar Reddy said that Revanth’s rebuttal to the PM’s accusation had only two correct facts — that `26,000 crore was allocated in the state Budget for loan waiver, and the Cabinet approved `31,000 crore. “However, the Congress government deceived farmers by not implementing the waiver as promised. Only 22 lakh of the 65 lakh farmers who took crop loans had benefited from the waiver so far,” the BJP MLA said.
He urged the chief minister to clarify the status of the loan waiver scheme, particularly in light of conflicting statements made by Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao. He also questioned whether the Congress had been misleading the public and farmers to gain political advantage in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections.
In his letter, the MLA said that despite the promises made during the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections, the loan waiver had not moved forward in the past six months. He also pointed out the discrepancies between the amounts required for loan waiver— Rs 49,500 crore as per the State Level Bankers Committee and Rs 40,000 crore mentioned by the CM in a party meeting in May 2024.