The Telangana Congress party is learnt to have virtually hijacked a proposed scheme of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi to attract farmers in the next assembly elections.
A few days ago, a popular Telugu daily leaked the news that the TRS is contemplating a new scheme – of waiving crop loans worth Rs 2 lakh of all the farmers in the state if the party is voted to power again for the second term in 2019 elections.
The TRS think tank is said to be working on the details of the scheme and the talk was that KCR might announce it during his speech on Republic Day.
Ironically, the Congress party, too, was working on a similar scheme secretly.
According to their plan, the party was planning to announce crop loan waiver up to Rs 1.5 lakh. This was to counter the scheme of crop loan waiver of Rs 1 lakh announced by the TRS in the last elections.
Though the TRS announced that the scheme was implemented successfully, it did not benefit many farmers, as the money paid by the government was adjusted towards interest and the loan remained the same.
Somehow, the Congress plan has got leaked to the TRS and it had to hurriedly leak to the media about the Rs 2 lakh crop loan waiver scheme. This was taken the Congress leaders by surprise.
As a result, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy to make an announcement that his party would implement the Rs 2 lakh crop loan waiver scheme if it is voted to power.
He even declared that his party would implement the scheme in one go, rather than in instalments, as was implemented by the TRS government in the last three years.
Now, it remains to be seen whom the people will believe – the TRS or the Congress.
