HYDERABAD: The central government’s decision to provide remunerative price to mirchi farmers seems to have provided a rare opportunity to Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan to raise his voice in support of Telangana farmers.
The actor-turned-politico, who has been taking on the central government over issues concerning the two Telugu-speaking states, particularly on the current developments in Andhra, termed as unfair the procurement of chilli in Telangana State as announced by the Narendra Modi government.
“The Centre’s decision to procure 88,300 tonnes of chilli from AP and only 33,700 tonnes from TS clearly proves that it is discriminating against Telangana, which is unfair.
The Centre should procure the same quantity of chillies from Telangana State too,” he said, a day after both the governments in the two Telugu-speaking states gave a thumbs down to the “meager” price announced by the Centre for mirchi.
Pawan, on Friday, asked the Centre not to create differences between the peoples of the two Telugu-speaking states.
He remarked that the price announced by Centre was not at all reasonable.
“The remunerative price of ` 5,000 per quintal of chillies, as announced by the Centre, will not provide the required help to farmers who are distressed by the falling prices and the Centre should increase the price,” he said in a press release.
The film actor also wondered why governments, which are showering sops in form of subsidies on businessmen on every count, are reluctant to address the woes of farmers.