GIVE DETAILS ON LOAN SOP: HC TO TS, AP

The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday sought details about the implementation of the farmers’ loan waiver scheme from the governments of TS and AP.

A division bench directed the TS government to file a report on how the farmers were identified and how many benefited from scheme. It also directed the AP government to explain the steps taken for implementation of the scheme.

The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday sought details about the implementation of the farmers’ loan waiver scheme from the governments of TS and AP.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice T. Rajani directed the TS government to file the report explaining how were the farmers identified for the loan waiver and how many benefited from scheme.

The bench directed the AP government to explain the steps taken so far for implementation of the loan waiver scheme.

The bench was dealing with PILs filed separately by one Kolli Siva Rami Reddy, a farmer from Sakhamuru village in Tullur mandal in Guntur district, D. Narasimha Reddy and another from Nalgonda district and Vyavasaya Jana Chaitanya Samiti seeking to declare as illegal the action of the respondent governments in not taking adequate measures to prevent farmer suicides and not releasing adequate compensation to the families of farmers.

C. Damodar Reddy, counsel appearing for petitioner Narasimha Reddy, brought to the notice of the court that the TS government had on August 13, 2014 issued a GO waiving crop loans/gold loans of farmers up to a sum of `1 lakh per farmer family in the state as a onetime settlement.

He submitted that while the GO specified that it was a onetime settlement, the government paid the `1 lakh in four instalments.

Due to the instalment system, none of the farmer benefited from the scheme and till date, many banks have not released the passbooks for crop loans and ornaments under the gold loan claiming that interest arrears were not paid.

TS government counsel told the court that the state has waived loans of farmers by paying `17,000 crore to banks in four instalments.