Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Saturday alleged that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government’s “politicking” on paddy procurement smacks of “large scale conspiracy” to help the middlemen make “hundreds of crores” and diverting the anger of the farmers towards the Centre.
In an open letter to the farming community, he said by closing down the paddy procurement centres during Yasangi (Rabi) season, the 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 Chandrasekhar Rao in collusion with the rice millers’ mafia to deny MSP to farmers and benefit bigwigs in the ruling party,” he alleged. The Centre is ready to pay an ₹1,960 for a quintal of paddy as MSP during the rabi season and farmers have already started harvesting the crop and in several districts like Nalgonda, Khammam and Warangal, bringing their produce to the market. But, they are forced to go to millers who in turn are paying ₹1300-₹1,660 per quintal of paddy, less than the MSP. This is due to closure on procurement centres.
“Farmers are compelled to sell their produce at a very lesser rate offered by brokers, suffering a loss of ₹300-600 per quintal as they need the money for their needs,” said Mr. Sanjay Kumar. The BJP president said sensing that there would be severe unrest among the farmers due to non-payment of MSP for their produce and that might lead to largescale agitation against the government, the ruling TRS leaders backed by KCR have started enacting a “big drama” by taking up agitation against the Centre.
“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.
The Central follows a uniform policy across the country and this year, too, it was the same. In the seven years, the Narendra Modi government had paid ₹97,575 crore to the TS government for procurement of rice. “Why should there be a problem only in Telangana, when there was no issue in case of all the other states?” he asked. “It is time people teach a fitting lesson to the TRS. Farmers are well aware of the conspiracies of the TRS. I request them to join the struggle being waged by the BJP,” Sanjay appealed.
