Hyderabad: The TRS government’s first Cabinet meeting took place in the Secretariat on Sunday. The two-hour-long meeting, headed by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and attended by all the 11 ministers, was confined to the official agenda of approving the Governor’s address to the joint session of the Telangana State Legislature, in the backdrop of the Legislative Assembly session commencing on Monday to administer oath to newly-elected MLAs besides electing the Speaker and deputy Speaker.
The TRS government is expected to make its stand clear on implementation of various poll promises through the Governor’s speech at a time when it is facing backlash from farmers on the “conditional” farm loan waiver scheme. Sources said that Mr Rao was upset at the contradictory statements being made by some ministers on waiver of farm loans and has directed them to be “extra cautious” while making public statements on important issues.
The TRS government came under fire from farmers soon after taking charge on June 2 with finance minister Etela Rajender disclosing to the media that there would only be a “conditional” loan waiver that would be extended only to crop loans, not other agri-related activities and gold loans. His statements had triggered protests across the T-region and continued even on Sunday with farmers burning effigies of the TRS government and Mr Rao, demanding waiver of all farm loans up to Rs 1 lakh as promised in the party’s election manifesto.
Though, Mr Rajender had backtracked on his statement the next day, blaming the media for “misquoting” him and stating that nothing had been decided on the farm loan waiver yet and they had just sought a report from the bankers on the modalities to be adopted. His statement, however, had failed to pacify the farmers. Despite this, several ministers in the Cabinet continued to make contradictory statements on the farm loan waiver, causing huge embarrassment to the TRS government.
