The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Lagadapati hails loan waiver scheme

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Wednesday, Mar 05, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Lagadapati hails loan waiver scheme

Special Correspondent

VIJAYAWADA: Farmers of Krishna district will benefit to the tune of Rs. 500 crores from the debt waiver scheme announced in the Union Budget, Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal said on Tuesday.

Participating in a meet-the-press organised by the Press Club on the ‘Union Budget’, Mr. Rajagopal said over two lakh farmers in the district would benefit from the scheme. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had stated that farmers of Andhra Pradesh would benefit to the extent of Rs. 10,000 crores to Rs. 12,000 crores. Mr. Rajagopal said though critics and detractors were calling this an ‘election budget’, it was, in fact, “a budget that caters to the needs and aspirations of the people”. AICC president Sonia Gandhi had made a careful study of the ground realities and the plight of the farmers before recommending the loan waiver. “What is the point in giving trifles to the farmers who are stuck in the quicksand of debt,” the MP said.

While the Chief Minister had called the scheme “the mother of loan waivers”, the MP chose to term it ‘the great-grandmother of all waivers’.

Mr. Rajagopal felt that there was no need for Ms. Sonia Gandhi to cancel her visit because of the TRS MPs’ resignations. “Their resignation is not a sudden development. The Congress would not be browbeaten. We will not succumb to threats, blackmails and street theatre,” he said.

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