The YSR Congress Andhra Pradesh government’s decision to scrap the implementation of the farm-loan waiver scheme of the previous Chandrababu Naidu government has come under criticism from the opposition Telugu Desam Party.
In a GO on Wednesday, the YS Jaganmohan Reddy government stopped the scheme, which amounts to around ₹8,000 crore, including 10 per cent interest on bonds. The earlier, goverment had promised to waive around ₹26,000 crore loans of farmers in five instalments.
It managed to clear only three, approximately about ₹18,000 crore as the election code came into force. The TDP government also issued bonds to the farmers for those instalments, promising to pay up after the elections.
The TDP lost power and one of the main reasons was cited as the wrath of farmers as it had promised a lot (complete farm loan waiver) and diluted it to a pittance. Jaganmohan Reddy also made it one of the main election issues.
TDP leader and former Agriculture minister S Chandramohan Reddy alleged that the “YSR Congress Government is focussing solely on undoing whatever was done by the previous Telugu Desam government with a vengeful attitude and in the bargain inflicting pain on all sections of people, the latest victims being farmers”.
Further, he scrapped the Annadata Sukhibhava scheme introduced by the TDP, giving ₹15,000 to each farmer, he added.
He was commenting on Thursday on the Government Order issued by the State on Wednesday evening scrapping the farm-loan waiver scheme announced by the previous TDP Government.
The previous government had promised in its 2014 election manifesto that it would waive off all farm loans in the State, which, according to the calculations of the YSR Congress, then in the opposition, amounted to more than ₹80,000 crore. However, the Naidu Government trimmed it to ₹26,000 crore and promised to waive it off in five instalments.