Centre forced TS to take to streets in Delhi on paddy issue: Minister

Rakesh Tikait demands new farm policy, MSP guarantee law

Telangana Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy has blamed the Centre for forcing the Telangana government to take to streets of Delhi on the issue of paddy procurement. He also faulted the Centre for discriminating between States on the procurement issue in the absence of a national policy.

Speaking at the protest staged in Delhi on Monday demanding the Centre to procure paddy produced during this rabi season in Telangana, he said the demand made by Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2011 on support price as devised by M.S. Swaminathan was before Narendra Modi the Prime Minister now. In 2013, Mr. Modi demanded a uniform procurement policy in an all-India farmers meet held in Gujarat.

During the run up to 2014 Parliament elections, Mr. Modi promised what he had demanded in the past but they remained unfulfilled even in 2022, Mr. Reddy said adding that the Prime Minister’s promise of doubling farmers income by 2022, made in 2016, had in fact doubled the investment instead. Recollecting Union Minister of Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal’s insulting words to make people and farmers of Telangana eat broken rice to overcome the rabi procurement issue, he said the time was not far away when people would make BJP eat such grains.

Rythu Bandhu Samithi chairman Palla Rajeshwar Reddy alleged that BJP had created a lot of problems for the last three days to scuttle the arrangements being made for highlighting a genuine issue. Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Parliamentary party leader K. Keshava Rao said some sections were of the view that they (TRS leaders) were here to make some noise, but they were here to bring a genuine issue to the notice of the country.

Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Singh Tikait said there was nothing political about the protest being staged by Telangana government. “It’s unfortunate that a State government has to come to Delhi and stage a protest in support of farmers,” he said and observed that the Centre was publicising its support of ₹6,000 per farmer, that too not covering all farmers, giving in three instalments as if it was paying in dollars.

He demanded a new farm policy at the national-level and a minimum support price guarantee legislation stating that most of the farm produce was being sold not even at half the existing MSP fixed, leaving the producers (farmers) in distress all along.

Earlier, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Mr. Tikait and other leaders of TRS paid tributes to Telangana martyrs and paid floral tributes to Telangana Thalli and B.R. Ambedkar statues and portrait of Jyothiba Phule before commencement of the protest.