Telangana BJP president and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy, on Monday announced that the Centre has agreed to purchase 50 lakh tonnes of paddy from Telangana this rabi (yasangi) season and also the coming kharif season till September 30 this year through the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
The Centre has also agreed to buy the entire produce of boiled rice after he represented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the onus is now on the State government to ensure that paddy procurement is done efficiently from this month onwards, he told a ‘Kisan Morcha’ (farmers wing) meeting of the party.
Mr. Reddy assured total support for procurement by the Central government from the banks and other institutions as the highest procurement of paddy will be from Telangana this year, he said. The Modi government has hiked the paddy price per quintal from ₹1,300 to ₹2,300 or by 60% since 2014, he claimed.
At the same time, the BJP chief faulted the State government for being lackadaisical in dealing with the drought-like conditions across Telangana. “The water table has fallen, bores have run dry and crops are withering but neither the Minister nor his fellow Ministers seem to be bothered. There is drinking water crises all over and there is no water for cattle either,” he said.
Mr. Reddy chose to remind the Chief Minister about the guarantees promised to the farmers including the farm loan waiver, bonus of ₹500 per quintal, enhanced financial assistance for the farmers including tenant farmers and so on. The earlier BRS government had also cheated the farming community and the Congress government has been no different, he said.
The Minister also gave a call for making successful a slew of protest programmes across the districts to highlight the failures of the government. Morcha president K. Sridhar Reddy was present.
Two crore houses for poor in next term
Earlier, the party chief stated that two crore houses will be built for the poor in the next term of the Modi government and claimed that the country has seen “fantastic progress” in the last 10 years in every sphere. “From being a dependent nation, we have reached a position where we are helping other nations as we move towards earning the tag of a developed nation,” he claimed.
Addressing a press conference at the State party office, Mr. Reddy reeled out figures to showcase the country’s economic growth and affirmed that the Centre had been implementing schemes without any “discrimination based on caste, creed or religion”.
Emphasis has been on infrastructure growth with 3.17 lakh km roads built, including four-lane highways from 18,000 km to 46,000 km while 40,000 km of railway line having been electrified during this period. Inflation and unemployment figures too had drastically come down, he added.
