Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy on Wednesday accused the opposition Congress party of presenting inflated figures on farmers’ suicides in Telangana State.
Addressing a press conference at the State Secretariat here, Pocharam condemned the Congress leaders for stating that more than 1,000 farmers have committed suicide since the formation of new government. He said that the actual figure was 409. Of them, compensation, as per the GO Ms. No. 421, has been paid to 141 families and it would paid to the families soon. He blamed the wrong policies of previous Congress regime for these suicides.
The minister also informed that the State Government has disbursed Rs 6,631 Crore loans to 15,00,131 farmers during Khariff season. He also assured to take action against the bank officials who were forcibly collecting interest from farmers on crop loans. He said there was no interest for loans up to Rs. 1 lakh and only 25 paise interest will be collected for loans up to Rs 3 lakh. Stating that half of Rs. 17,500 crore crop loan amount has already been waived, he said the remaining half amount would be cleared in two installments. (INN)