Centre adopting double standards in procuring paddy: Harish Rao
Siddipet: Finance Minister T Harish Rao has called upon the people of Telangana and the farmers to continue with the fight against the BJP government at the Centre till it concedes to the State’s demand of procuring all the paddy produced in both Vanakalam and Yasangi seasons.
Addressing farmers and TRS cadre at the “Maha Dharna” here on Thursday, the Minister said that the union government was adopting double standards in procuring paddy from different States in the country. Stating that Punjab farmers had fought and forced the Centre to purchase 100 per cent of paddy produced in their State, Harish Rao said the people of Telangana need to put up a similar fight to find a permanent solution to the paddy procurement issue.
Stating that the paddy milled in Telangana during Yasangi was suitable for only boiled rice, the Minister said the Centre asked the State to send only raw rice even during Yasangi though they were well aware of the issue. Accusing the union government of indirectly telling Telangana that they were not going to procure paddy, he said the Centre can export the paddy procured from Telangana to other nations.
The Centre, he said, was lying that they had never exported paddy to other nations. Asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to listen to the issues of the paddy farmers, Harish Rao suggested that the former respond to the paddy farmers’ issues during the ‘Man Ki Baat’ instead of talking about less pressing topics.
“Modi has done nothing for farmers and the farming sector since he came to power while Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao took a host of welfare and development programmes to lift the farming fraternity from the crisis post-Telangana formation,” he said, adding that Chandrashekhar Rao was a source of inspiration for many other States on agriculture reforms.
Harish Rao said the Centre has been indiscriminately raising prices of essentials which may eventually push India into a Sri Lanka kind of crisis. “The Centre has not taken up recruitment for posts in the government sector since 2014 though lakhs of posts are lying vacant,” he said.
Terming the BJP as Bharatiya Jhuta Party, he said the Modi government never kept its promises. He called upon the farmers to hoist black flags in all their houses on Friday to register their protest against the Centres attitude on paddy procurement.
Medak MP Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, Zilla Parishad Chairperson V Roja Sharma, MLCs Dr V Yadava Reddy, Farooq Hussain, MLA V Sathish Kumar and others were present.
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