Centre behaving irresponsibly: TCSC Chairman
Hyderabad: Condemning Union Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal’s remarks that the State government was not supplying rice to the Centre, Telangana Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman Mareddy Srinivas Reddy said it was the Centre which was behaving irresponsibly and unnecessarily blaming the State government on the issue.
Interacting with media persons here on Thursday, Reddy said the Central government stopped milling for 50 days in the name of inspections and behaved irresponsibly and now it was blaming the State government. “Did the Centre provide sufficient storage space or railway wagons any time for supplying rice during the season? Moreover, lorries’ parked in front of godowns of Food Corporation of India (FCI) is a common sight in Telangana. Did the Union Minister Goyal see this?” he asked.
The FCI has taken godowns with a capacity of 20.47 lakh metric tonnes only on rent. But more than 28 lakh metric tonnes of rice was stored and it is beyond the storage capacity. The rice cannot be shifted unless railway wagons reach the godowns, he pointed out.
Accusing the Centre of failing to play its role responsibly and spreading lies with respect to procurement process, Reddy said the former created several problems to the State government, which is ready to send rice as per the agreement. “It is unfortunate that Goyal used Parliament as a platform to cover up the Centre’s failure in paddy procurement issue,” he said. There are as many as 2,700 mills in the State as against 1700 mills when the State was carved out.
Stating that even these mills were insufficient to meet the increasing demand, the chairman said instead of supporting the new State which carried out record procurement, the Centre was rendering injustice to farmers in the State by creating problems.
Taking strong exception to the remarks made by the MP and former TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on the same issue, he the Congress lead was speaking without proper knowledge. During the Congress rule in united Andhra Pradesh, farmers used to stage demonstrations demanding that the government supply gunny bags, minimum support price and seeds. The police also caned farmers for staging demonstrations.
In 10 years from 2004-05 to 2013-14, the Congress government purchased 31,96,015 metric tonnes of paddy in Vanakalam. However, in the last seven years from 2014-15 to 2020-21, the TRS government purchased 1,97,23,459 metric tonnes in Vanakalam.
So far, 40 lakh metric tonnes of paddy worth Rs.8,000 crore was procured from 6.43 lakh farmers through 6,703 procurement centres. The centres, where the procurement was completed, were closed. As many as 911 centres were closed in Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, Medak, Sangareddy, Nalgonda, Jagtial, Nirmal, Rajanna-Sircilla and Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri districts, he added.
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