Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday launched the second phase of his government's crop loan waiver scheme with an outlay of over Rs 6,198 crore, which would benefit about 6.40 lakh farmer families.

The chief minister and his cabinet colleagues started the second phase of disbursal of money for the loan waiver at an event held on the premises of the legislative assembly.

While the loans of farmers who borrowed up to Rs one lakh were waived in the first phase on July 18, loans of up to Rs 1.50 lakh are being dispensed with in the second phase.

Speaking on the occasion, Revanth Reddy recalled that the Congress had promised, in the form of a 'rythu declaration', at a public meeting held at Warangal in 2022 in the presence of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, that loans of up to Rs two lakh would be waived to help farmers.

The previous BRS government could not properly fulfill its promise to waive loans worth a total of Rs 25,000 crore during its 10-year rule, he alleged.

"We have proved our sincerity by waiving the loans of up to Rs 1.50 lakh each of about 18 lakh farmers. By waiving loans of up to Rs two lakh in August, we want to make the farmers free of debt burden, like how the country got Independence in August," Revanth Reddy said.

Since Independence, no state has implemented loan waiver of Rs 31,000 crore as is being done by the Congress government in Telangana, which is a record in the country's history, he said.

Observing that banks resort to one-time settlements by taking haircuts when corporate loans become non-performing assets, he said his government is doing "full-time settlement" to safeguard the self-respect of farmers.

He claimed that his government has paid Rs 43,000 crore as interest in six months on the loans taken by the previous BRS regime.

He also pointed out that it was Congress governments at Centre that implemented pathbreaking measures such as the Green Revolution, irrigation projects like Nagarjuna Sagar, nationalisation of banks, Food Security Act, Rs 72,000 farm loan waiver and providing subsidy on seeds and fertilisers.

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