Hyderabad: A Congress delegation that met Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan on Saturday sought his intervention to overcome the severe shortage of cash needed by farmers to take up agricultural operations in kharif season.
Led by TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, the delegation of senior leaders K. Jana Reddy, Mohd. Ali Shabbir, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, M. Kodanda Reddy, J. Geetha Reddy, G. Chinna Reddy, D.K. Aruna, Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, Balram Naik and Danam Nagender, met the Governor at the Raj Bhavan to appraise him of the problems being faced by farmers in the state.
They said that the problems have multiplied by several times in recent months due to the failure of the government.
Speaking to the media later, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the recent procurement of paddy, which the farmers expected to be a boon turned out to be a bane. He said farmers found that their money from the sale of paddy has been locked up in banks which are not allowing them to withdraw it citing currency shortage.
Lack of liquid currency in rural branches of commercial banks, and in regional rural banks, has created immense difficulties for both farmers and farm labour,” the TPCC chief said, and pointed out that even MNREGA funds have not been released due to shortage of cash.
“The loan waiver scheme failed due to faulty implementation; the ill-planned scheme left small and marginal farmers in deep misery. As they did not get back their land documents, they could not get loans, which in any case was difficult to get,” he said.
Citing the example of Nalimela Gangaram of Wadi village in Nizamabad who paid Rs 21,486 as interest in the last four years, the Congress leader said that the farmer still has an outstanding debt of Rs 91,703, since the loan waiver instalments were staggered. “This shows that farmers included in the loan waiver scheme are still in debt,” the TPCC chief said.
