HYDERABAD: Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G Kishan Reddy wanted to know why the paddy procurement problem was arising only in Telangana and not in other State like Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, all of which have similar climatic conditions.
Addressing the media in New Delhi on Friday, the Union Minister responded to the demand being raised by TRS leaders that procurement needed to be done from Telangana on par with Punjab and said that paddy is grown in Punjab only in Kharif and not in the Rabi season, when only wheat is produced.
He stated that the TRS government was raising a hue and cry over a non-issue only to gain political mileage and shifting the blame onto the Centre with a malafide intention. Recalling that before 2014, when the UPA government was in power at the Centre, the total amount spent on procuring paddy in the erstwhile AP was Rs 3,404 crore but the NDA government procured paddy worth Rs 26,641 crore last year from Telangana alone.
On the protests being staged by the TRS leaders against fuel and gas price hike, he questioned why the State government had not reduced the price of fuel earlier this year, when several other States did by cutting down on the VAT on petrol and diesel. “Despite the Centre bearing a loss of Rs 20,000 crore due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, it is still subsidising the fuel for the common people,” he said.
The Union Minister also that TRS was interested in developing only certain constituencies like Siddipet, Gajwel and Sircilla, while neglecting others like Dubbak represented by BJP MLA M Raghunandan Rao. “The BJP, on the contrary, was focusing on developing all the constituencies and States equally across the country,” he added.
He also observed that after suffering a setback in Huzurabad Assembly by-election, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had begun hurling abuses at BJP leaders. Asserting that the Centre was ready to procure all raw rice produced in Telangana, he also urged the Chief Minister to cooperate with the Centre and procure paddy from the farmers.