Slow paddy procurement reason for damage and loss in untimely rains, says BRS

BRS leader criticises slow paddy procurement by State government; farmers forced into distress sale, support price not met.

HYDERABAD

Senior leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and former Minister T. Harish Rao criticised the State government for its failure to procure a considerable quantity of paddy in over a month so far, despite the tall claims of the government of opening sufficient number of purchase centres.

Speaking after visiting a paddy procurement centre at Baddipadaga of Nangunur mandal in Siddipet district on Sunday, he sought to know why the procurement exercise was going at a slow pace although the farmers were suffering loss with the damage of their produce both at the procurement centres, market yards and harvesting platforms in the untimely rains.

Further, the farmers were forced to guard their produce in the harvesting platforms as monkeys and other animals were destroying standing and harvested crop, Mr. Rao said, adding that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had garnered the support of the farming community before the elections, but after taking over as Chief Minister, he did not have time to find out from farmers whether they were getting the support price.

Even the ministers had no time to visit the procurement centres and find out the farmers’ problems in disposing of their produce. Due to the slow pace of procurement, the farmers were forced to resort to distress sale of their produce and sell paddy at as low as ₹1,800 a quintal. Similarly, the farmers of cotton and maize were also not getting the support price.

At a separate press conference in Hyderabad, party leader A. Rakesh Reddy said that of the 7,521 procurement centres planned for paddy, only 4,598 were opened for namesake so far as the procurement was nominal even after a month after the exercise began. Cotton farmers were struggling to get even ₹5,000 a quintal as the Cotton Corporation of India had failed to open procurement centres.

Separately, former Minister and Suryapet MLA G. Jagadish Reddy said that while cotton farmers in Telangana were not getting even the support price of ₹7,521 a unital, farmers in Gujarat were being given ₹8,000 a quintal. He criticised the Chief Minister for not even holding one review meeting on cotton and paddy, two major crops of the kharif season, procurement so far.