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Our Bureau

Hyderabad , June 21

The State Assembly on Monday adopted the AP Farmers Agricultural Debts (Moratorium) Bill amid protest from the members of the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The legislation provides for declaration of a moratorium on farm-related debts in the State for a period of six months.

Introducing the Bill in the Assembly, the Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Mr Dharmana Prasada Rao, said that the farmers in the State have lost their crops and incurred heavy losses on account of successive droughts.

It had also come to the notice of the Government that moneylenders in the rural areas were resorting to harassment of farmers forcing them to resort to the extreme step of committing suicide.

Hence, the Government had decided to declare a moratorium on farm-related loans. The Bill seeks to give effect to the Government's decision in this regard.

The TDP members, however, said that the Bill was not comprehensive to mitigate the plight of the farmers and demanded that the moratorium should be extended to loans taken by farmers from cooperative, commercial and regional rural banks. The party's motion to amend the Bill to this effect was rejected by the House with 179 members voting against it.

The Bill states that no civil court shall entertain any suit or other proceedings against the debtor for the recovery of any amount of the debt borrowed or incurred including interest thereon for which a moratorium has been declared. It covers "every debt borrowed or incurred for the purpose of agriculture and cultivation of agricultural land from a creditor or a moneylender."

Earlier, the TDP legislators, led by their leader, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, came to the Legislative Assembly on bicycles in protest against the hike in the prices of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas.

The five-week-long Budget session of the Assembly commenced on Monday. The Minister for Finance and Legislative Affairs, Mr K. Rosaiah, would present the Budget on June 23.

More Stories on : Farm credit | Agricultural Policy | Andhra Pradesh | Politics

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AP Assembly passes farmers' credit moratorium Bill

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