The BRS party recently organized a successful protest, known as a “dharna,” at the Jogulamba Gadwal District Collector’s office. The main demand of the protest was the immediate and unconditional implementation of the promised Rs. 2 lakh farmer loan waiver. A group of BRS leaders and farmers, led by prominent figures within the party, submitted a memorandum to District Collector AD Veerabhadrappa. This memorandum urged the government to honor its commitment to the farming community.
The memorandum pointed out that the Telangana government had promised to waive off farmer loans up to Rs. 2 lakh. This was a significant promise made by the Congress party during the last assembly elections. Initially, the government announced a loan waiver scheme worth Rs. 60,000 crores. However, this amount was later reduced to Rs. 41,000 crores and then further revised to Rs. 36,000 crores following a cabinet meeting. Although the budget allocated Rs. 27,000 crores with various conditions attached, only Rs. 17,000 crores had been disbursed by August 15. The government claimed that the loan waiver was complete at this point.
However, reports indicate that only 42.50% of the promised loan waiver has actually been fulfilled. Ministers have acknowledged that due to several restrictions, 1.7 million farmers have not yet received the benefits of the waiver. The BRS party accused the government of trying to divert attention from this issue by blaming the opposition, particularly the BRS party itself. They demanded that the loan waiver be implemented without any further delays or conditions and stressed that farmers should not be forced to run around banks to receive the waiver.
The protest saw participation from several senior BRS leaders, including Nagar Doddi Venkataramulu, state senior leader Boss Shyamala Hanumanthu Naidu, ZPTC and district leaders Dr. K. Vijay Kumar, Patel Janardhan Reddy, N. Jayaram Reddy, Gumma Govardhan, Tower Makbool, Beechupalli Muni, Rangu Maddileti, Manda Mallikarjun, Vinod, B. Gopal, and Satya Reddy. A large number of farmers, BRS leaders, and party workers joined the peaceful protest, making it a resounding success.
