Former president of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has cheated the woman self-help groups (SHGs) of the State without releasing ₹ 4250 crores due to them.
Addressing the media along with TPCC working president and MLA T Jagga Reddy, All India Mahila Congress general secretary Fatima, president of Telangana Mahila Congress Sunita Rao, he said that the State government owes about ₹ 4250 crore to the woman SHGs of the State.
“In the past two years and 10 months the government did not pay single rupee towards the interests of the loans being taken by the SHGs of the State. The government did not release ₹ 2200 crore of interest to 3.85 lakh SHGs of the rural areas and ₹ 750 crore to the 1.52 lakh SHGs of urban areas. On the whole the government owes ₹ 3000 crore to the SHGs of the State under Vaddi Leni Runalu scheme,” he said.
Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the government owes ₹ 5000 to ₹ 10000 of interest each to 66 lakh members of the SHGs of the State. Each SHG needs to get ₹ 50,000 to ₹ 1.50 lakh on an average from the government.
On top of it the government has retained ₹ 1256 crore of premium being paid by the SHGs towards insurance under the Abhaya Hastam scheme. With this the total dues of the government payable to the SHGs reaches ₹ 4,256 crore.
He alleged that let alone paying the interests of the SHGs, the government has been bringing pressure on the groups to pay the interest from their own pockets to the banks. He said that a Mandal Parishad Development Officer Sudhakar has been suspended for non-payment of interest by the SHGs of his mandal.
Mr. Reddy reminded that Chief Minister has promised to establish food processing units through the SHGs in the State. But no action has been taken so far to implement the promise. CM has also promised to regularize services of 4256 employees of the SERP. Even this promise was not kept.
The MP said that CM released ₹ 1200 crore towards the interest to SHGs before the elections of 2018 and that too because of the Congress meeting of SHGs with Rahul Gandhi during 2018.
