Congress, BJP have no right to speak on paddy procurement issue: Harish Rao

Medak: Finance Minister T Harish Rao instructed the Medak RDO to immediately procure paddy from farmers of Alladurgam Mandal in the district on Tuesday. The Minister, who was on his way back to Narsapur after a surprise visit to Narayankhed Area Hospital in Sangareddy district, saw the farmers protesting at the Alldurgam Mandal headquarters. Harish […]

Medak: Finance Minister T Harish Rao instructed the Medak RDO to immediately procure paddy from farmers of Alladurgam Mandal in the district on Tuesday.

The Minister, who was on his way back to Narsapur after a surprise visit to Narayankhed Area Hospital in Sangareddy district, saw the farmers protesting at the Alldurgam Mandal headquarters.

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Harish Rao, who got down from his vehicle, enquired about the issue. When the farmers complained that the officials were delaying the procurement, the Minister called up the RDO and asked him to come to the spot immediately. He directed the RDO to deploy additional workers and vehicles immediately to procure the paddy. Satisfied with the Minister’s intervention, the farmers called off their protest.

“70% paddy procured in Sangareddy”

Sangareddy: Speaking to news reporters on the paddy procurement issue in Narayankhed town, the Minister said that the State government had procured 70 per cent of the paddy through 157 procurement centers across the district. Saying that BJP and Congress had no right to talk on the paddy procurement issue, Harish Rao asked the Congress to compare the number of procurement centers they had set up in the State during their rule.

Accusing the Union Minister of Tourism and Culture G Kishan Reddy of lying on the paddy procurement issue, the Minister said Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goel and Kishan Reddy were making contradictary statements on the paddy procurement row. While Piyush Goel and Food Corporation of India (FCI) informed the State that they would not procure boiled rice, Kishan Reddy was saying that they will purchase both raw and boiled rice, he said, and demanded that Kishan Reddy clarify on how much boiled rice the Centre would purchase from the State.

Stating that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao made the highest allocation to the agriculture sector in the budget, the Minister said people of Narayankhed used to suffer a lot for want of drinking and irrigation water. However, the State government had put an end to the drinking water issue with Mission Bagiratha scheme besides beginning the works on Sangameshwara Lift Irrigation Project and Basaveshwara Lift Irrigation Projects with an outlay of over Rs 4,000 crore with the objective of providing irrigation water to Narayankhed, Andole, Zaheerabad and Sangareddy Assembly Constituencies. Saying that Congress government in undivided Andhra Pradesh diverted Manjeera water to Hyderabad before 2014, Rao said that they were utilising Manjeera water for Sangareddy and Medak besides getting additional Godavari water through Singur Project that is part of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS).

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