Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (AP, ) on the 11th of July, announced a no interest loan scheme for farmers across the State.
Mr. Reddy, on the first day of the AP Assembly session, said, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) will implement a new scheme for the welfare of farmers.
According to the no interest loan scheme, if the farmers pay the principal loan amount within a given period of time, then the Government of AP will pay the interest to the bank on behalf of the farmers.
Jagan Mohan Reddy also offered to give Rs. 84,000 crores as crop loan this year. He said, “If the farmers repay this loan within the stipulated time, the rate of interest would be paid to the banks on their behalf.”
Nimmala Ramanaidu, a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP,) deemed the scheme to be of the previous Government, which is the TDP.
Mr. Ramanaidu said, the scheme for the farmers is nothing new, but a continuation of a scheme which was launched in 2013 by N. Chandrababu Naidu, the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
However, Jagan denied this and challenged the TDP, stating if he proves the scheme is new, will the TDP members quit the Assembly?
Soon, Jagan Mohan Reddy and the TDP leaders started a heated debate over the scheme and alleged each other of various things.
Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged the TDP Government of betraying people of AP regarding loan waivers. He said, Chandrababu promised a waiver of Rs. 87,612 crores, but released only Rs. 24,500 crores, out of which, he paid only a sum of Rs. 15,000 crores.
During the Assembly session, Jagan also spoke about the drought situation in AP and said, the AP Government will fund Rs. 1 crore each to 175 MLAs for solving the drinking water issues in their respective Assembly.
The State Government also assured free power supply to farmers for 9 hours during the day.
The Andhra Pradesh Government will announce the AP Budget on the 12th of July.
Stay tuned for further updates.
