Final round of Crop Loan Waiver from August 3, Rs 19K-Cr to be waived by September 2nd week: KCR

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) on Wednesday decided to restart and complete the next tranche of ‘Rytu Runa Mafi’ under the Crop Loan Waiver Scheme worth Rs 19,000 crore from August 3, 2023.

The Chief Minister urged Finance Minister T Harish Rao and Special Chief Secretary Finance K Ramakrishna Rao to restart the scheme on Thursday and implement it in a phased manner like ‘Rytu Bandhu’ to complete the scheme by the second week of September at the latest.

Taking the plight of the farmers into consideration in the state, the Government despite financial constraints waived off the outstanding loans of all the farmers in the state as on March 31, 2014, KCR said.

“Because of the sudden demonetisation slapped on the people of the country followed by prolonged pandemic and the FRBM restrictions unilaterally imposed on Telangana, there is a slight delay in the continuation of the programme, the Chief Minister noted at a high-level review meeting held at Pragathi Bhavan in Hyderabad.

Now that the State’s finances were looking up and the fiscal deficit had come down the Government would restart and complete the scheme for the benefit of the farmers of the State, KCR said.

“However, the State Government continued implementation of farmer-centric schemes such as ‘Rytu Bandhu’, ‘Rytu Bima’ and free power considering the welfare of the farmers,” the Chief Minister said. He reiterated his government’s commitment to completely revive the farm economy of the State by encouraging innovative food processing units to augment farmers’ incomes.

Minister for Agriculture Singireddy Niranjan Reddy thanking the Chief Minister for waiving the loans said farmers never believed the speculation of the opposition parties that the Government would never implement the scheme in its totality. “Farmers very well know that KCR will never deceive them, and kept their cool,” he said.

He explained that the implementation of the Crop Loan Waiver Scheme was delayed due to financial constraints faced by the State. “The State lost crores of rupees of revenue because of the pandemic. But Rytu Bandhu scheme was continued, depositing money directly into the farmers’ bank accounts,” he said.