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.
