Farmer organisations hold joint dharna in Khammam

Farmers demand crop loan waiver without conditions, criticising GO 567, in joint dharna organised by CPI and CPI (M).

Farmers’ organisations, affiliated to the CPI and the CPI (M), organised a joint dharna in front of the Collectorate in Khammam on Tuesday, demanding waiver of crop loans of all eligible farmers up to ₹2 lakh without any conditions, within a specific timeframe.

Addressing the dharna, the leaders of the farmers’ organisations alleged that a significant chunk of farmers were yet to get benefit under the farm loan waiver scheme due to ‘certain conditions’ stipulated in GO 567. They criticised the ‘condition’ that the farmers with outstanding loan amount exceeding ₹2 lakh should settle the excess amount to avail the benefit under the scheme and wanted the government to implement the scheme in toto without any ‘conditions’.

CPI (M) senior leader and the Telangana Rythu Sangham State president P Sudarshan Rao said the State government has waived off crop loans of about 22 lakh farmers out of a total of around 42 lakh eligible farmers in the State. In Khammam district, the crop loan waiver was extended to only a little over 1.15 lakh farmers out of 3,71,157 eligible farmers, he said, demanding that the crop loans of all eligible farmers be waived off immediately to free the farmers from the debt burden.

CPI State leader and Telangana Rashtra Rythu Sangham State president B Hemantha Rao and others spoke.

Earlier, hundreds of farmers took out a huge rally under the banner of the Rythu Sangham in the town.