Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution, Commerce Piyush Goyal to procure the paddy produced in Telangana this Rabi season with the assurance that the State government would do all arrangements on a warfooting as paddy has started to flood the agricultural markets.
He urged the Centre to take a decision on the issue in 24 hours’ time or else the State government would decide what to do next. “The State government is not so weak that it can’t protect the interests of its farmers. We won’t leave our farmers in the lurch as the Centre is doing,” Mr. Rao said, speaking at a protest staged in Delhi on the issue on Monday along with his Cabinet colleagues, MLAs, MLCs, MPs and other elected representatives of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Singh Tikait also participated in the protest expressing solidarity with the Telangana farmers and spoke in support of Telangana government’s demand to the Centre to take up procurement of paddy produced in Rabi at minimum support price. He appreciated the Telangana Chief Minister for leading a fight on behalf of the farmers.
Stating that the Telangana elected representatives from mandal parishad level had travelled about 2,000 km to participate in the protest in support of the genuine demand of farmers, the Chief Minister said: “Prime Minister Modi can play with anybody in the country, but not with the farming community as history stands proof that no government in the country withstood the curse of the food-producer”.
He also exposed the double standards of BJP on the paddy procurement issue by playing the videos of Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy and State BJP president Bandi Sanjay, in which they promised farmers of procuring paddy produced in Rabi irrespective of it being supplied as raw rice or parboiled rice. “Through our protest, we want to let the country know how the BJP is playing with the farmers,” Mr. Rao said.
Alleging that the Centre was instigating CBI, ED and IT raids against the leaders of opposition parties and all those who countered the anti-farmer and anti-people policies the BJP-led government there, the Telangana Chief Minister said several BJP leaders back home had been speaking for long about such raids and sending him to jail. He dared the BJP to order such raids against him, stating that he, who led the movement for statehood, could not be cowed down with such threats.
He also alleged that Mr. Goyal had insulted not only the farming community and people of Telangana, but also Ministers who called on him by suggesting them to practice consuming broken rice to overcome the paddy procurement problem in Rabi. He sought to know whether the Centre has no money or the intention to procure paddy in Telangana this Rabi season.
Earlier, Mr. Tikait stressed the need for another struggle for farmers and MSP law in the country to ensure that they get remunerative price for their produce as more than half of the farm produce was being sold at less than half the MSP. He sought to know why every State in the country could not give round-the-clock free power to the farm sector and ₹ 10,000 per acre per year investment support as being given in Telangana.
