Jagan calls Naidu’s bluff on loan waiver

Hyderabad, Dec 4: Calling the bluff of Chandrababu Naidu on the loan waiver, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said the blatant turnaround of the Chief Minister’s double speak will be exposed with farmers, women groups, pensioners and other groups joining the Maha dharna at all the District Collectorates of the State on December 5.

“We will expose his dichotomy and sternly oppose his anti-people policies as he has been drastically cutting down the number of beneficiaries on some pretext or the other and has been telling blatant lies on farm and DWACRA loans,” YS Jagan Mohan Reddy told reporters here on Thursday.

Showing the electioneering clippings of Chandrababu Naidu assuring that he will waive all agriculture and DWACRA loans, the Leader of Opposition has questioned the turnaround of the Chief Minister who has been maintaining that he has only promised to waive crop loans and not agriculture loans.

The Chief Minister who had brought the down the number eligible bank accounts from over 1 crore to just 22 lakhs has been deceiving the farmers who are pushed into indebtedness due to his false promises and 86 farmers have committed suicides due to his sly statements.

Before elections, Chandrababu Naidu has promised to waive all agriculture and DWACRA loans besides providing e one job to every house failing which Rs 2,000 would be paid as unemployment stipend. All these are in the party manifesto and have been widely publicized in the media and hoardings were erected in all villages with highlights giving more visibility to his promises.

He also wrote to the Election Commission that he is aware of the arithmetic involved in waiving agriculture and DWACR loans. Even on the day of swearing-in he has given advertisement on his poll promises. Everywhere total waiver of agriculture and DWACRA loans was prominently mentioned in the first and second place. Now the Chief Minster has changed the tune and is telling that he has only said that crop loans will be waived which is a blatant lie. His bluff is called as the advertisements are on public domain.

He has cut down the number of beneficiaries drastically as the amount due as per State Level Bankers’ Committee, chaired by Chandrababu Naidu, has put the total agriculture loans at Rs 87, 612 crores as on March 31, 2014 in the divided State of Andhra Pradesh. Adding up the DWACRA loans the figure goes up to Rs 1.01 lakh crores. The SLBC meeting was held in June.

As the farmers and women groups who believed his words have become defaulters the penal interest would be charged at 14 % running into 14,000 crores. The Chief Minister has earmarked Rs 5,000 crores in the budget for loan waiver which does not even take care of the interest.

Though he promised that his first signature will be on the file to waive agriculture loans, the first file he signed was appointing Kotaiah Committee to study the feasibility of the loans waiver. After that he has tried every trick in the bag to downsize the quantum of loan putting strictures like Aadhar card linkage and finally arrived at a figure of 22 lakh bank accounts while the number of farmers’ bank accounts are over 1 crore. Even at this stage, Chandrababu Naidu is not in a position to spell out the exact amount he is going to waive, which shows his ulterior motives.

To protest against the anti-people policies of the TDP government will hold dharna programs at all District Collector offices with farmers, women, students and other sections joining us in exposing the double speak of what he said before the elections and what he is saying after being elected. This contrast will be the crux of our strong protest, he said.