Hyderabad: On Saturday, August 17, angry farmers in Telangana staged massive protests against the Congress government, accusing it of failing to deliver on its election promises to waive their crop loans. The farmers, who were deeply frustrated with the delay in the loan waiver, charged the state government with deceit, claiming that despite promises made in God's name, their loans had not been forgiven. In a symbolic protest, they held a mock funeral procession for Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.

The unrest was particularly intense in the erstwhile Adilabad district, where around 500 farmers from various villages gathered at the Talamadugu Mandal center. Here, they carried out a large-scale funeral procession for CM Revanth Reddy, expressing their anger over the unfulfilled promises. The protestors burned the Chief Minister's effigy and chanted slogans like "CM down down," even striking the effigy with slippers to demonstrate their discontent.

The farmers voiced their frustrations, explaining that the delay in the crop loan waiver had severely impacted their ability to cultivate crops. Forced to seek loans from money lenders at exorbitant interest rates, they felt betrayed by the Congress party, which had made grand promises under its "Rythu Bharosa" scheme but failed to deliver.

The protests spread across multiple regions, with farmers taking to the streets in Boath, Bela, Jainath, and Thamsi mandals, where they decried the exclusion of their names from the list of beneficiaries released by the agriculture department. They urged district authorities to rectify this by including their names in the waiver list.

In Nennal Mandal, Mancherial district, farmers staged a rasta-roko, blocking traffic on National Highway 363 to demand justice. They highlighted that their crop loans, amounting to Rs 2 lakh each, had not been waived, accusing the Congress government of irregularities in the implementation of the loan waiver scheme at the Rebbena Mandal center in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district.

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is facing significant opposition not only from the farmers but also from the BJP and BRS over the crop loan waiver issue. Despite claims by the Congress government that it had implemented extensive loan waivers, opposition parties and a significant number of farmers remain unconvinced.

On August 15, CM Revanth Reddy asserted that within eight months of assuming power, the Congress government had waived off Rs. 31,000 crores in debt, fulfilling Rahul Gandhi's promise to make Telangana farmers debt-free by waiving loans up to Rs 2 lakh. The government recently released the third and final installment of the crop loan waiver, totaling Rs 5,644.24 crore, bringing the total released amount to over Rs 17,000 crore under the Crop Loan Waiver Scheme.

However, critics, including the BJP and BRS, have accused the Congress government of cheating farmers, arguing that a large percentage of loans remain unpaid. The Telangana BJP highlighted on social media that only about 60% of farmers received the promised loan waivers, while BRS leader K.T. Rama Rao pointed out that the waiver was extended to only 22 lakh farmers as the government considered families rather than individual farmers as units.

According to KTR, while CM Revanth Reddy initially promised to write off Rs 41,000 crore in outstanding loans, this figure was reduced to Rs 31,000 crore in a Cabinet meeting. Ultimately, only Rs 26,000 crore was allocated in the budget, and in practice, the government waived off crop loans worth only Rs 17,934 crore, leading to widespread dissatisfaction among the farming community.

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