Congress govt failed to provide MSP to paddy, cotton, maize: Harish Rao

Harish Rao said that the government had failed to make arrangements to purchase paddy, cotton, and maize, forcing farmers to sell their produce to middlemen at a much cheaper rate than the MSP.

Siddipet: Former Minister T Harish Rao said that the government had failed to make arrangements to purchase paddy, cotton, and maize, forcing farmers to sell their produce to middlemen at a much cheaper rate than the MSP.

The former Minister examined the progress of paddy procurement at Baddipadiga in Nanganur mandal on Sunday, where farmers told him that they were forced to wait at the procurement centre for a month. They said many of them were selling to middlemen at Rs 1.800 Rs 2,000 per quintal against the MSP of Rs 2,300 fixed by the government.

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Rao said that the farmers were struggling to save their produce from rains, monkeys and rodents since they were forced to wait so long. Stating that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy of becoming Chief Minister with the support of the farmers, he said Revanth Reddy had failed to extend any support to the farming fraternity after coming to power.

Rao said that the Congress government had failed to release the amount to farmers after purchasing soybeans two months ago. The government could not release loan waiver benefits to 22 lakh farmers in the State besides denying Rythu Bharosa for Vanakalam. While Siddipet, which cultivated paddy on 3.6o lakh acres, expected to get 9 lakh metric tonnes of harvest, he said the government could not even procure more than 1,000 metric tonnes so far. Unable to wait anymore, farmers were approaching middlemen, he said, also pointing out that there was a shortage of gunny bags, tarpaulins, and other facilities across the procurement centres.

Rao demanded that Revanth Reddy visit procurement centres to examine the status, failing which massive protests would be organised to expose the Congress government’s failures.