In what could be termed as show of strength, cadre of the TDP-BJP combine gathered in large numbers at Gajwel, the Assembly headquarters being represented by none other than Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, on Tuesday as part of the ‘mahadharna’ taken up by TDP leader and Telugu Rythu president V. Pratap Reddy.
Almost all legislators from both the parties attended the day-long protest and assured farmers that they would fight the government to waive off remaining farm loan at single stake and extend ex-gratia to all the families of farmers who had committed suicide. The dharna was held from 11 a.m. to 5.20 p.m. Addressing the gathering, BJP president G. Kishan Reddy said that they are ready to get funds from the Centre to pay the farm loans to the banks, provided Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao accepts his failure.
“We will convince Prime Minister Narendra Modi and get funds to the tune of Rs. 8,500 crore that has to be paid to banks if you accept your failure,” he said.
He said that this amount can be spared from the proposed skyscrapers which are expected to cost the exchequer about Rs. 21,000 crore. Alleging that they were thrown out of Assembly for demanding the government to keep the election promise, he said that funds crunch is coming in the case of paying to farmers only.
TDP working president A. Revanth Reddy wondered why the government failed to pay compensation to all farmers when the total amount might not be more than Rs.100 crore. “Farmers stopped paying banks when Mr. Rao promised to waive off Rs. 1-lakh loan for every farmer. We could not understand why there is 16-month delay in waiving off loans when government is in a position to spend large amounts for other purposes with more than Rs. 1-lakh crore budget?” he asked.
