The Opposition Congress and TDP criticised the State government for its failure in implementing the promise of crop loan waiver at one go. With the government being reluctant to waive loans at one go, farmers were finding it difficult to obtain fresh loans from banks. Banks were adjusting the loan waiver instalments released by the government towards interest, premium for crop insurance and other bank charges before remitting the amount into farmers’ accounts, they said. Participating in a debate in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, Congress member N. Uttam Kumar Reddy recalled how the agriculture sector plunged into crisis ever since the TRS took over the reins of the State two years ago. He recalled that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had assured the Assembly twice that the Government would consider waiver of crop loans at one go if the Centre agreed to raise the FRBM limit from 3 per cent to 3.5 per cent. The assurance remained on paper even after the Centre had agreed to relax the FRBM norms. Though the Centre had released Rs. 790 crore towards input subsidy, the Government had diverted the money to other purposes further deepening the crisis. The government’s negligence of the sector resulted in a spate of suicides by farmers, but the families of the deceased were not paid compensation in line with the orders in vogue. The government’s lopsided priorities could be seen from the fact that the irrigated area across the State has come down significantly. TDP member A. Revanth Reddy lamented that though the government made Rs. 3.45 lakh budgetary allocations in the last three budgets, it was not willing to spend Rs. 17,000 crore towards loan waiver at one go. The National Crime Records Bureau statistics revealed that as many as 898 farmers committed suicide in the last two-and-a-half years, and compensation was paid to only 40 families so far. Another Congress member K. Venkat Reddy criticised the government for its approach towards promoting drip and sprinkler irrigation as was evident from the huge number of pending applications. Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, however, explained to the House that the government received approval from Nabard for loan of Rs. 874 crore a few days ago and it was committed to disposing the pending applications with that funds. Source - http://www.thehindu.com