Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government is feeling the heat as it continues to delay the announcement on the modalities for waiver of crop loans.
On July 8, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had tweeted and his Cabinet colleagues had announced that RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has in principle agreed to reschedule crop loans in drought and cyclone-hit mandals of AP.
However, till date, the AP government has not received any letter from the RBI on allowing banks to reschedule crop loans. This has left the farmers worried.
The AP ministers are putting up a brave face. They are reiterating that the crop loan waiver scheme will be implemented at all cost.
On Tuesday, agriculture minister P. Pulla Rao said they were expecting a letter from the RBI governor in a day or two.
“We are confident that RBI governor Raghuram Rajan will issue a letter rescheduling crop loans. But if we do not receive the RBI letter, then Chandrababu Naidu will take up the issue with Mr Rajan and also the Central government. The crop loan waiver will be implemented,” he said.
The minister added that various consultancies have been asked to study various crop insurance models in the world to see the possibility of an insurance policy to farmers, wherein they would get back 100 per cent compensation for crop loss either due to drought, cyclone or any other untoward incident.
On the Kotaiah Committee’s report on farm loan waiver, the agriculture minister said it will submit its report in two to three days after the RBI letter with modalities on crop loan rescheduling is received.
However, Mr Pulla Rao made it clear that the Telugu Desam government was committed to extend crop loan waiver to self help groups, those who mortgaged gold and obtained loans in addition land mortgaged passbook loans.
