Harish Rao accuses Cong govt of stalling procurement bengal gram in the name of quota

Former minister Harish Rao accused the Congress government of restricting crop procurement in Telangana, claiming farmers are forced to sell produce below MSP. He demanded immediate procurement of Bengal gram, maize and jowar across all centres in the State.

Sangareddy: Former Minister T Harish Rao said that the Congress government had pushed the farmers into struggle by restricting the procurement of Bengal gram, jowar and maize in the name of quota. As several farmers complained over denial of purchasing their produce, Harish Rao visited a District Cooperative and Marketing Society (DCMS) procurement centre in Sadasivapet on Monday.

Speaking to news reporters after interacting with the farmers, he said that the officials were not taking the already procured Bengal gram besides denying to purchase any produce brought to the centre. Since there was an approximate 60,000 metric tonnes of Bengal gram with farmers across the State, Rao urged the government to purchase them by offering Rs 5,870 MSP per quintal. Unable to sell the Bengal gram at government procurement centres, Rao said that many farmers had sold out at Rs 1,000 less than MSP to middlemen.

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Stating that the story of maize farmers was no different, he said that the Congress government did not open even half of the announced purchasing centres even though the crop on 11 lakh acres across Telangana was already harvested. He further accused Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy of making no announcement on their plan to purchase jowar.

Accusing Congress of coming to power with false promises such as Rs 500 bonus to all the crops, Rao said that Revanth even failed to provide bonus to fine rice. After interacting with the farmers over the power supply, Rao said that Congress hardly supplied 10 hour power supply to the agriculture sector.

He demanded that Revanth Reddy open paddy, sunflower, maize, Bengal gram and jowar procurement centres to buy the last grain of produce from each and every farmer and asked the Chief Minister to shuttle to New Delhi and Kerala. The former minister accused Congress of acting against the welfare of farmers by denying rythu bharosa, loan waiver and many other benefits. MLAs Chintha Prabhakar, K Manik Rao and others were present.