TRS boycotts Parliament session over paddy procurement, suspension of 12 MPs

Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Tuesday announced that it would boycott the ongoing winter session of Parliament following the Union government’s failure to respond to a host of issues raised by Telangana including lifting of rice stocks from the State, a uniform national paddy procurement policy and the continuing suspension of 12 Rajya […]

Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Tuesday announced that it would boycott the ongoing winter session of Parliament following the Union government’s failure to respond to a host of issues raised by Telangana including lifting of rice stocks from the State, a uniform national paddy procurement policy and the continuing suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs. The 16 TRS MPs including nine from Lok Sabha and seven from Rajya Sabha who staged a walkout from both the Houses, vowed to take the fight to the people’s arena.

Peeved by the BJP government’s utter disregard to genuine demands, the TRS MPs said farmers in the country will get justice only when Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves his the seat. “This is a fascist and anti-farmer government. We will prepare the people to revolt against the BJP in people’s arena,” said TRS Legislative Party leader K Keshava Rao.

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Speaking to mediapersons at Telangana Bhavan in New Delhi, Keshava Rao said TRS MPs decided to boycott the entire winter session since the Centre failed to respond to their demands for rice procurement from Telangana. He said no member was inclined to boycott the Parliamentary session, but the Centre had forced them to take such a painful decision. Considering the agro-climatic conditions, milling raw rice would cause severe loss to farmers during Yasangi (Rabi) season and parboiled rice was the only solution, he said.

“But the Centre is refusing to purchase parboiled rice from the State. Further, the Union government failed to give any clarity on the extent of rice that it was ready to purchase in Yasangi season. The government also did not respond to our protests in Parliament on expediting rice procurement from the State for the ongoing Vaanakalam (Kharif) procurement season. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is not lifting the rice stocks at all,” he said.

TRS Lok Sabha leader Nama Nageshwara Rao said the Central government was giving devious answers without clarifying on whether it would purchase parboiled rice or not and to what extent. He said while the Union government does not care about the suffering of Telangana farmers, the BJP leaders in the State were misleading farmers with their statements. “We are vexed with the Centre’s tactic of evading on giving an assurance on paddy procurement from the State. We are boycotting the session as justice has not been done to our farmers,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the TRS MPs walked into Parliament wearing black dresses to mark their protest. Keshava Rao tabled an adjournment motion in the Rajya Sabha on ‘discriminatory crop procurement policy of the Central Govt and non-procurement of crops from Telangana’ which were rejected. They staged demonstrations in both the Houses and obstructed the proceedings by displaying placards and raising slogans. With the Centre not responding to their demands, they staged a walkout from both the Houses and protested outside the Parliament. Later, they joined Opposition MPs in solidarity with the protest at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the Parliament premises, demanding that the Centre revoke suspension of 12 MPs.

Since the beginning of the winter session on November 29, the TRS MPs have been protesting and disrupting Parliamentary proceedings, demanding that the Union government give an assurance on paddy procurement for ensuing Yasangi season and also lift the rice stocks lying with the State government. For the last six days, they staged protests near the Speaker’s podium in Lok Sabha and the Chairman’s podium in Rajya Sabha.

They gave adjournment motions seeking discussion on farmers’ issues, national uniform procurement policy and also legal assurances to provide Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers, but the same were rejected. Further, the Centre did not give any concrete assurances and instead, went on to blame the State government for delaying delivery of Custom Milled Rice (CMR).

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