SIDDIPET : Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao on Monday launched a “selfie video” campaign to reportedly remind farmers that their crop loans were not fully waived as claimed by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
As per the former minister’s instructions, lower-level BRS leaders recorded selfie videos with farmers whose loans were not waived in various villages across the Siddipet constituency and sent them to the chief minister’s office (CMO).
“I had taken a crop loan of rs 1.98 lakh before the Congress government’s formation in the state, I pay off loans annually. However, I did not pay the principal amount this year because the Congress had announced that all crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh would be waived after they come to power,” said Sunkari Narayana, a farmer from Dharmaram village of Mirdoddi mandal, in a selfie video.
Expressing frustration over the loans not being waived, he said the loan waiver was not been extended to many farmers in their village.
BRS leaders also took a selfie video with Kurma Kanakaiah, a farmer from the same village. In the video, Kanakaiah said, “We did not ask for loan waiver, specifically didn’t ask for the implementation of six guarantees. However, CM Revanth came to us and gave assurances but failed to fulfil the promises.”
The BRS leaders also brought about 80 Siddipet farmers to the district collectorate. Since they arrived at the same time, police personnel intervened and prevent them from entering the premises. The police told the farmers that they would only allow five people inside which sparked a short argument between both parties.
Eventually, five farmers went to the hall where the Prajavani programme was underway and submitted a petition to the officials to request the government implement the full loan waiver.
FARMERS SEND SELFIES WITH PASSBOOKS TO CMO, DEMAND SANCTION OF CROP LOAN WAIVER AMOUNT
ADILABAD: Farmers in Mukhra (K) village staged a protest on an agricultural field on Monday. The protesters took selfies with their passbooks and sent them to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) over the non-receipt of the crop loan waiver of Rs 2 lakh.
The farmers alleged that the Congress promised a crop loan waiver of Rs 2 lakh before the elections. However, after forming the government, restrictions were imposed, which the protesters termed “unfair”. They argued that if a married couple has a crop loan of Rs 4 lakh, they should repay only Rs 2 lakh. After that, the government should release the remaining Rs 2 lakh as a loan waiver.
“How can we repay such a large amount given that we have already invested all our savings and borrowed money in cultivating cotton and other crops,” they questioned. The government had assured that it would directly deposit Rs 2 lakh into the farmers’ accounts. The remaining amount would be repaid by the farmers themselves to the bankers. However, in the village, 50% of the farmers have not received the loan waiver amount, they claimed, adding that the Rythu Bharosa amount had not been released yet either