Paddy purchase: BJP stands exposed

Hyderabad: What could be the best example of a double talk? One need not search for examples, but look at the way the State BJP leaders peddle untruths and egg on people based on false propaganda. Saturday’s taunt by the State BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay asking farmers in Telangana to start cultivating paddy […]

Hyderabad: What could be the best example of a double talk? One need not search for examples, but look at the way the State BJP leaders peddle untruths and egg on people based on false propaganda.

Saturday’s taunt by the State BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay asking farmers in Telangana to start cultivating paddy clearly is an example of how the BJP leaders thrive on false propaganda, irrespective of the irreparable loss that is to accrue to the farming community.

Bandi Sanjay’s statement asking farmers to go for paddy cultivation masks the original truth where the Centre has been reminding in strongly worded missives to the Telangana Government that it would not be in a position to procure parboiled rice from Kharif Marketing season (KMS) of 2021-22.

If one were to examine the official communication on the issue, Bandi Sanjay’s claims would be exposed thoroughly. Here are the facts which expose the double standards of the Telangana BJP leaders on paddy procurement.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs (MoCA) had written to Telangana Commissioner of Civil Supplies clearly stating that no parboiled rice is to be delivered by the State government to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in future. In another letter to Commissioner of Civil Supplies on September 8, 2021, the FCI reiterated that it will not be in a position to accept any parboiled (PB) rice from KMS 2021-22. It had also advised the government to encourage farmers for crop diversification by incentivising sowing of other crops.

Earlier, In another letter addressed to States in August 2021, the MoCA enclosed a copy of the meeting conducted on August 17, 2021 with the State Good Secretaries and officers of FCI to review the arrangements for procurement of paddy/rice during KMS 2021-22 and advised the governments to encourage farmers for crop diversification by incentivising sowing of other crops.

The Secretary of the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) has made it clear that consumption of PB rice was limited and FCI was not in a position to accept any more PB rice. While the MoCA and FCI clearly stated in their letters that they cannot accept PB rice, the BJP leaders in Telangana have a different tale to narrate. Without any consideration for the financial distress it could lead to, they are openly egging on the farming community to cultivate paddy assuring them that they would force the State Government to procure paddy produced in the State. Anyone can see through the BJP leaders gameplay that they only want to defame the Telangana Government and in the process are ready to sacrifice the welfare of the farmers.

It is not as if the BJP leaders are making these claims in private. During a meeting organised at the BJP State office in Nampally on Saturday to mark the party’s victory in Huzurabad by-election, Sanjay called upon farmers to go for paddy cultivation.

The repeated reminders of the MoCA and FCI categorically stating that PB rice cannot be accepted, Sanjay seemed to be totally oblivious to what his party government at the Centre is instructing the States. And what could be a better example of double talk?

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