Hyderabad: Congress Campaign Committee chairperson Madhu Goud Yaskhi on Friday hit out at the Central and Telangana governments over the paddy procurement issue and called it a “big scam”.
“In Telangana, we are facing a peculiar situation, the ruling party blames the Centre for procurement while the Centre says there is no ban on procurement. Both the TRS and BJP government are playing with the lives of farmers. Paddy Procurement should continue every season,” Yaskhi told ANI.
He further accused the state government of tricking the farmers on the subject.
“Instead of solving the issue, the state government is fooling the farmers by colluding with Rice Millers. When the rice millers buy the paddy at Rs 400 less than the MSP, the CM later will come and buy the product at MSP. A big scam planned by the Chandrashekar Rao,” hee added.
Meanwhile, the Telangana government decided to stage a dharna in the national capital on April 11 to mark a protest against the Centre’s paddy procurement policy.
TRS MLC K Kavitha, who is the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, said in the national capital that if the Centre did not pay attention to the situation of the farmers of the state, they would be forced to agitate on the streets of Delhi.
On March 24, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal assured farmers of Telangana that there is absolutely no discrimination among the farmers from different states and added that some politicians in Telangana are misleading the farmers in the state.
This statement comes from the Union Minister in light of the recent meeting with the delegation of Telangana Ministers and officials who had come to the national capital to press the demand that the Food Corporation of India should procure the entire quantity of paddy produced in the State.
Telangana government has been demanding the Centre procure the entire paddy produced in the State. Last year, a delegation of Ministers from the State had even met union Ministers to make a clear announcement on paddy procurement, including the quantity. However, there has been no amicable solution obtained to the problem yet.
