HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MPs on Tuesday took a decision to boycott the rest of the winter session of Parliament in protest against the Central government’s indifferent attitude on paddy procurement issue. However, the BJP made it clear that there was no ambiguity in its stand and that the TRS has decided against procuring Rabi paddy only to do away with Rs 1-a-kg rice scheme.
As both the BJP and the TRS were trading charges, Congress MP A Revanth Reddy threw his oar in, contending that the TRS took the decision only to be in the good books of the BJP and thus prevent institution of an ED inquiry into Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao’s Rs 3,000 crore land allotment scam.
Though Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in the Lok Sabha that there was no restriction on sowing of crops in Telangana during 2021 Rabi season, the TRS MPs took the boycott decision and vowed to take the issue to the people’s court. The pink party MPs trooped out of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha after neither House took up the short discussion on paddy procurement in spite of the TRS insisting on it. Later, they told reporters that they would boycott the remainder of the session.
The TRS has nine members in Lok Sabha and six in Rajya Sabha. “No party wants to boycott the Parliament session. Though it is painful to do so, we have no other option,” said TRS Parliamentary Party leader K Keshava Rao.
Boycott indicates TRS-BJP nexus, alleges Revanth
“We are boycotting the session for the sake of the farmers,” TRS floor leader in Lok Sabha, Nama Nageswara Rao said.
Earlier, to a question raised by Congress member N Uttam Kumar Reddy in Lok Sabha, the Union Agriculture Minister said the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (DA&FW) has not issued any restriction on sowing of crops in the State for Rabi 2021.
Nama Nageswara Rao alleged that while the Agriculture Minister had said there were no restrictions on growing Rabi paddy, Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal, while replying to another question, had stated that they would not buy parboiled rice. The two Ministers gave different replies, he alleged.
Angry with the TRS MPS accusing the Centre of making conflicting statements, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy said that the State government was trying to discontinue Rs 1 per kg rice scheme by declaring that it would not to procure Rabi paddy from Telangana farmers.
Kishan Reddy said he did not understand why the TRS MPs staged a walkout when Goyal gave clarifications on the questions raised by them.
Speaking to the media, he reiterated that the Centre would continue procuring raw rice from the States and how much would be procured, would be decided only in February after the Centre holds meetings with the States over Rabi rice procurement.
Why is the State government making a hue and cry about the Rabi 2021-22, when 17 lakh tonnes of paddy was yet to be procured from the pr-esent Kharif season, he wondered and added: “After losing Huzurabad bypoll, the TRS is spewing venom on BJP.”
Nizamabad BJP MP D Arvind alleged in Lok Sabha that TRS working president K T Rama Rao was responsible for recycling of subsidy rice to benefit the millers. While this is so, Congress MP A Revanth Reddy said that by boycotting the winter session, the TRS MPs have proved his prediction true. “The nexus between the two parties has become evident with the decision of the TRS MPs to absta-in from Parliament,” he said.