TRS govt politicking on paddy procurement: Sanjay

TRS govt | In an open letter to the farming community in the State, Sanjay said by closing down the paddy procurement centres during Yasangi (Rabi) season, the Telangana government was creating an inevitable situation for the farmers to sell their produce to middlemen at a very lower rate than the minimum support price (MSP). “It is a conspiracy hatched by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao in collusion with the rice millers’ mafia to deny MSP to farmers, so that the bigwigs in the ruling party mint millions of rupees in the form of commission,” he alleged.

Stating that the closure of the paddy procurement centres during the Rabi season was part of the large scale conspiracy of the KCR government, the BJP president said since the farmers would question the government for not purchasing the paddy, the TRS leaders were hitting the roads to divert the farmers’ anger towards the Centre.

He said the Centre would pay an MSP of Rs 1,960 for quintal of paddy during the Rabi season. The farmers have already started harvesting the crop and in several districts like Nalgonda, Khammam and Warangal, the farmers have started bringing their produce to the market.

TRS govt

Since the State government has not opened the IKP centres (meant for procurement of agriculture produce), the farmers are forced to go to millers. Taking advantage of the farmers’ helplessness, the millers are paying only around Rs 1,300 to Rs 1,660 per quintal of paddy, which is much less than the MSP. “Since the farmers have to clear their debts and meet their family requirements, they are compelled to sell their produce at lesser rate offered by brokers, thereby suffering a loss of Rs 300 to Rs 600 per quintal,” he added.

యాసంగి వడ్ల కొనుగోలు విషయంలో టీఆర్ఎస్ సర్కారు మహాకుట్రను వివరిస్తూ తెలంగాణ రైతాంగానికి రాసిన బహిరంగ లేఖ. pic.twitter.com/buzGFtjJjE

— Bandi Sanjay Kumar (@bandisanjay_bjp) April 9, 2022

Sanjay said this season, paddy was cultivated in 35 lakh acres in Telangana, which is expected to yield a quantity of nearly 60 lakh tonnes. Since the farmers are not getting the MSP, they would lose heavily on this huge quantity of paddy. “This is a massive scam. On an average, the big people in power are said to have entered into an agreement with brokers’ mafia for paying them a commission of Rs 100 per quintal,” he alleged.

“They are blaming the Centre stating that it was not coming forward to purchase paddy. By maligning the Centre, the TRS is planning to divert the farmers’ ire towards the BJP and the people’s attention from the brokers’ mafia, which is paying the ruling party crores of rupees in the form of commission,” he said.

Stating that the Central government was always for the welfare of farmers, Sanjay said it was ready to purchase every grain produced by them. It has been following a uniform policy across the country and this year, too, it was following the same in case of Telangana.

“It has been paying every single rupee, right from procurement of paddy to milling to packaging to transportation to the FCI godowns. Even the cost of weighing and gunny bags and hamali charges are being borne by the Centre. It is also paying commission to the State government for this entire exercise,” he said.

He reminded that in the last seven years, the Narendra Modi government at the Centre had paid Rs 97,575 crore to the Telangana government for procurement of rice. Telangana had been in the No. 2 position in the country in the procurement of rice. The KCR government signed an agreement with the FCI before the last Kharif season that it would procure paddy, convert it into rice and supply the same to the Centre. Why has it changed its stand now?” he asked.

At the meeting held by the Centre with all the States on February 25 this year, the Telangana government had not submitted the details of how much rice it would supply to the Centre. He also reminded that on October 4, 2021, the Telangana government had given a written undertaking to the Centre saying that it won’t supply boiled rice to the Centre. “Now, it says it will send only boiled rice. BJP president said the farmers had nothing to do with the boiled rice. They will produce paddy and the State government has to procure the same, convert it into rice and send it to the Centre.

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