Loan waiver to put a burden of Rs.1,500 cr. in Medak

Loan waiver to benefit 2.9 lakh farmers. It will put burden of Rs.1500 cr. on State exchequer in Medak district. Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao, during his campaign, had promised to waive farming loans up to Rs. 1 lakh.

As the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is all set to form the government in Telangana state on or after the ‘appointed date’, i.e. June 2, the famers in the region are eagerly waiting for Chief Minister designate K. Chandrasekhar Rao to sign the file related to the loan waiver.

The loan waiver would be a great relief for farming community in general and Medak in particular, where 113 famers had committed suicide last year alone. It was estimated that about 2,200 farmers had taken the extreme step since 1995 in the district and in the last six months the figure touched about 30.

Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao, during his campaign, had promised to waive farming loans up to Rs. 1 lakh.

According to officials, the loan waiver would benefit about 2.9 lakh famers of the about 4 lakh famers in the district. Various banks in the district have extended loans to the tune of about Rs. 1,300 crore last financial year. Most of the farmers had stopped repayment of loans with the hope that that the new government would waive their loans. Officials are putting the total burden due to loan waiver at about Rs. 1,500 crore.

Actually the tendency of farmers not repaying bank loans started after Telugu Desam party president N. Chandrabau Naidu made the promise of farm loan waiver during ‘Meekosam’ visit in November 2012.

“Mr. Naidu asked the farmers not to pay the farm loans stating that he would waive them after coming to power. This made the farmers to hold back repayment with a hope that all the parties will follow him. Actually that was what happened with almost all major parties announcing the same decision,” said a bank officer on condition of anonymity stating that the actual figures come out when a policy decision was taken.