The official national handle of the Congress party posted that the Telangana Congress government had waived off loans for 40 lakh farmers under its crop loan waiver scheme.

Hyderabad: The Congress party has once again found itself in hot water after making misleading claims on the national level about implementation of the crop loan waiver scheme in Telangana. The party recently boasted that it had waived loans for 40 lakh farmers, which is being termed as grossly inflated and deceptive.

On Sunday, the official national handle of the Congress party on X (formerly Twitter) posted that the Telangana Congress government had waived off loans for 40 lakh farmers under its crop loan waiver scheme. The post, accompanied by a poster of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, claimed: “We said it, we did it.”

However, facts paint a different picture, with Revanth Reddy’s own words negating his party’s claims. In an official letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 7, countering his claims that the loan waiver was not implemented in Telangana, Revanth Reddy confirmed that the Congress government had waived loans for 22,22,067 farmers, amounting to Rs.17,869.22 crore in three phases.

This starkly contrasts the 40 lakh farmers figure the party flaunted on social media.

BRS working president KT Rama Rao was quick to react, ridiculing the inflated number. He quipped that, much like the AI-generated image in the Congress post, the figure mentioned was also “AI (Anumula Intelligence) generated.” He stated that only around 22 lakh farmers had benefited from the loan waiver so far.

He criticised the Congress for its ever-changing rules and dates, stating that Revanth Reddy failed to fulfill his promise to the farmers even in his own constituency and native village. “The only thing consistent about this Congress government is its lies and fake propaganda,” he remarked.

Ironically, this is not the first time that the Congress or its leaders have made misleading statements regarding the crop loan waiver. They have also admitted that only 50 per cent of farmers benefited from the scheme and crop loans of the remaining farmers would be waived in a phased manner.

The Chief Minister promised to implement the scheme immediately after coming to power, but extended the deadline for its implementation to 100 days and then to August 15.

Shortly after Revanth Reddy announced to have implemented 100 per cent farm loan waiver, Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy in August this year, had admitted that the loan waiver was pending in respect of over 17 lakh accounts.

Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao too acknowledged that around 20 lakh farmers were still awaiting for loan waiver. Several other Ministers also gave different numbers over the last few months.

Source - https://telanganatoday.com