BJP, Congress done nothing for ryots: Niranjan

Hyderabad: Coming down heavily on the Opposition parties, Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy accused the Congress and the BJP of colluding with each other in Telangana for their own political gains despite their being arch-rivals at the national level. He demanded that leaders of both the Opposition parties stage protests in Delhi rather than in Telangana […]

Hyderabad: Coming down heavily on the Opposition parties, Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy accused the Congress and the BJP of colluding with each other in Telangana for their own political gains despite their being arch-rivals at the national level. He demanded that leaders of both the Opposition parties stage protests in Delhi rather than in Telangana to prove their commitment towards farmers of the State and ensure that the Central government releases orders for procurement of entire paddy crop in the State.

“Both the Congress and the BJP are only interested in mudslinging against the TRS government and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. If they had any love and affection towards farmers, they would have joined TRS MPs’ demonstrations in Delhi and raised the issue in Parliament or convinced the union government about the farmers’ issues,” he said. The Minister pointed out that Congress did not even question the Central government on its failure to fill lakhs of vacancies in several government departments and organisations at the national level.

---

Speaking to media persons at Telangana Bhavan on Monday, the Minister said the agriculture sector in the State had made rapid strides due to the initiatives of Chandrashekhar Rao. However, both Congress and BJP have done nothing for the farmers, are now waiting for their pound of flesh by politicising the paddy procurement issue. He pointed out that the State government was spending a whopping Rs 60,000 crore on agriculture which was unheard of earlier.

He slammed both Congress and BJP leaders for trying to create an unnecessary issue over paddy cultivation during Yasangi. He made it clear that farmers are free to cultivate crops of their choice, but the State government will not open paddy procurement centres as the Centre refused to purchase paddy in Yasangi. He questioned whether the Opposition parties that were provoking the farmers to cultivate paddy, would take the responsibility of farmers in case they suffer losses.

On Sanjay’s one-day protest held on Monday, Niranjan Reddy pointed out that the Centre was selling all the public sector companies and in the process, depriving thousands of youngsters of job opportunities. He stated that BJP State president Bandi Sanjay who had no guts to question the union government for keeping over 8.72 lakh jobs vacant in the public sector, was staging false protests in the State. With the new zonal system in force, the State government already started the allocation of employees to new districts and based on vacancies arising out of it, job notifications will be released. Telangana State Forest Development Authority chairman V Pratap Reddy, MLC Kasireddy Narayana Reddy, former MLC M Sreenivas Reddy and others were present.