HYDERABAD: The BRS is expected to promise the increase the Rythu Bandhu amount to Rs 12,000 per acre per year from Rs 10,000 currently, if it forms government after the polls. Party sources said the manifesto, which is being drafted, would propose to increase the Aasara pension amount from Rs 2,016 to Rs 3,016 for aged persons, single women and widows, among others, and Kalyana Lakshmi/ Shaadi Mubarak from Rs 1,00,016 to Rs 1,25,016.
Aiming for a hat-trick victory, the party is set to retain its promise of waiving crop loans to up to Rs 1 lakh, which was the same it had promised in 2014 and 2018. Incidentally, the Congress has promised to waive crop loans of up to Rs 2 lakh crop if it came to power.
The BRS manifesto committee has initiated the process to draft the poll document for the upcoming Assembly polls. BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao will release the manifesto on October 16 at a public meeting to be held at Warangal.
The party leadership has decided to mobilise 10 lakh people from all the 119 Assembly constituencies for the meeting.
The BRS government fulfilled the 2014 poll promise on crop loan waiver in four years by releasing Rs 16,144 crore to banks in four phases. After retaining power in 2018, it could waive loans of only up to Rs 35,000 till July.
The Chief Minister had decided to clear the pending loans of up to Rs 1 lakh by releasing Rs 19,000 crore in August and September. At present, farmers are receiving the amount in their accounts in phases and orders were issued to the finance department to clear all loans up to Rs 1 lakh by September-end.
With regard to retaining the crop loan waiver promise at the same level, party sources said the Congress had promised Rs 2 lakh crop loan waiver even during the 2018 Assembly polls but the people had believed in the BRS and re-elected it.
