Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has alleged that the BJP-led Government at the Centre has been victimising Telangana with the fear that it would overtake Gujarat in economic growth and other development indicators and creating hurdles to paddy procurement is part of such victimisation.
Speaking to newspersons here on Sunday, Government Whip Balka Suman and legislators Methuku Anand and Yegge Mallesham said instead of playing an elder brother role in paddy procurement the Centre was acting as a villain. State BJP leaders, particularly president Bandi Sanjay, were justifying the insulting comments made by Union Minister of Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal during his meeting with four Telangana Ministers the other day.
Instead of condemning the Union Minister’s comments asking the Telangana Ministers to make Telangana people consume broken or parboiled rice, when the Ministers told Mr. Goyal that it was only parboiled rice that could be processed in Telangana during the rabi season and if milled as raw rice it would mostly end up as broken grain, Mr. Sanjay was seeking video proof of Mr. Goyal’s insulting words.
Stating that the struggle for rabi paddy procurement against the Centre would be intensified, the TRS leaders said Gram Panchayats had already started adopting resolutions demanding procurement of rabi paddy and sending them to the Prime Minister’s Office. They pointed out that it was the State BJP leaders who repeatedly asked farmers to go for paddy itself in rabi with the assurance that they would ensure its procurement.
But, now they were speaking nonsense, asking the State Government to procure paddy, the TRS leaders said and sought to know whether any State in the country was procuring paddy. They reminded the BJP leaders that procurement of foodgrains was the constitutional obligation and responsibility of the Centre but it was trying to escape the responsibility. They also stated that State Government would take up the responsibility if the Prime Minister made an announcement that procurement of foodgrains was not Centre’s job.
The TRS leaders also hit back at the BJP leaders for their criticism against the State Government on the power tariff increase, stating that it was only Telangana that was providing 24×7 quality free power supply to the agriculture sector by adding solar power capacity phenomenally during the last eight years. On the other hand, the BJP Government at the Centre was increasing petrol and diesel prices instead of pushing up GDP.
