Telangana Minister of Panchayat Raj and Urban Development, KT Rama Rao on Saturday claimed that the Congress-JDS coalition government in Karnataka had replicated the Telangana loan waiver model. He further questioned Congress party President Rahul Gandhi as to why they couldn’t provide a one-time loan waiver in Karnataka as its Telangana unit has been promising in the state.
The Minister expressed this on twitter in response to a tweet by Rahul Gandhi, speaking about about the farmer loan waiver announced in the Karnataka budget.
Dear @RahulGandhi Ji, your coalition govt in Karnataka replicated the Telangana farm loan waiver model & announced 4 annual instalments for the same
— KTR (@KTRTRS) July 7, 2018
Your party in Telangana claims that loan waiver can be done in 1 go! Wonder why/how the same party can’t get it done in Karnataka? https://t.co/8WY6JsACVq
The Karnataka budget for 2018 to 2019 was announced three days ago and had waived a whopping Rs 34,000 crore worth of loans for 17 lakh farmer families across the state.
Terming it a pro-farmer move, the Karnataka government allocated Rs 550 crore for progressive and sustainable farming.
In the budget allocated, Rs 150 crore was dedicated to creating an Israeli model of irrigation, which makes use of drip irrigation methods to conserve water, in 5,000 hectares of dry land in the districts of Kolar, Chitradurga, Koppal and Gadag.
The Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy who also holds the Finance Minister portfolio in the Assembly proposed that the state will implement zero budget natural farming on the lines of Andhra Pradesh for better yields with less investment.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Uttam Kumar Reddy had earlier announced that the party would waive farm loans up to Rs 2 lakh in one go, which was ridiculed by the Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Despite mockery by the CM, last month Uttam asserted that it was possible to waive off loans in one go.
“In the past we have waived off farm loans in a single stroke and this time also we are ready to do that. The current budget of the Telangana State is Rs 1.74 lakh crore and in 2019 it will be in the range of Rs 1.90 lakh crore and hence it is possible,” he said.
This is not the first time that KTR claimed credit for the initiatives proposed by other state governments or parties.
During the recent Karnataka elections, when the Bharatiya Janata Party released its manifesto, the minister was quick to take potshots at the BJP and claimed credit for the promises that they had made.
The minister had listed out the several initiatives introduced by his government which were promised by the BJP as well.