The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Loan waiver: pro-TDP ryots reap it rich

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Loan waiver: pro-TDP ryots reap it rich

G. Nagaraja

TDP chief’s call proves a boon

A majority of pro-Congress farmers clear the amount
It is not applicable to those who repaid before Feb. 2007

PEDAKADIMI (WEST GODAVARI DISTRICT): Freebies offered by the government are generally up for grabs to the diehards of the ruling establishment. But the case pertaining to the loan waiver scheme extended by the UPA government to the farming community seems to be different in this village falling under Pedavegi mandal of West Godavari district.

The government’s gesture seemingly came as a blessing in disguise for the farmers owing allegiance to the opposition TDP even as it proved to be the proverbial sour grapes for many pro-Congress farmers in the village. The relief is said to have reached many farmers with pro-TDP moorings since they deliberately turned out to be the defaulters, thanks to their party leader N. Chandrababu Naidu’s call not to clear the dues with a promise to write them off if he would come back to power in the next general elections. The call given by Mr. Naidu during his marathon ‘Mee kosam yatra’ was widely circulated among farmers, more so among those who were aligning with the TDP. Against this backdrop, those who followed Mr. Naidu in the letter and spirit and allowed their crop loans to be overdue by December 2007, enjoyed the State-sponsored bonanza in the village, according to enquiries made in the village.

Take the case of Annapaneni Raghavendra Rao for instance, who felt ‘left out’ from his own government’s largesse. He obtained a loan of Rs. 60,000 from the local branch of Grameena Bank in 2006. He cleared the loan and interest that worked out to a little over Rs. 1 lakh by disposing 200 bags of maize which reaped from his fields in July 2007. To his chagrin, the waiver scheme is not applicable to the farmers who cleared their loans before February 2007 as per the guidelines. Another farmer had obtained Rs. 1 lakh as a crop loan from the Eluru branch of Central Bank of India in June 2006 and repaid the amount, including interest, in May 2007.

Benefits 300 ryots

As per the list of beneficiaries of the waiver scheme displayed at the Eluru branch of Central Bank of India, about 300 farmers had their loans obtained from the Central Bank written off. Kosaraju Gangadhara Rao, president of the local PACS, says a sum of Rs. 50 lakhs advanced by the PACS to farmers from the village has been written off under the scheme. “I am dead against the waiver scheme since it helped the farming community in no way,” says Gangadhar Rao, a Congress leader from the village.

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