HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MPs will confront the Centre asking it to spell out its stand on procurement of paddy from Telangana when the monsoon session of Parliament begins on Monday.
The TRS Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members have been asked by party supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to fight for the protection of the interests of the farmers and the agriculture sector. “The Centre should come out with a uniform national food grain procurement policy for the entire nation,” the Chief Minister said at the Parliamentary party meeting held at Pragathi Bhavan here on Sunday.
Rao felt that the Centre’s ambiguous policies were creating a problem not only for farmers but also for the entire agriculture sector. He demanded that the BJP government should eschew doublespeak on procurement of paddy from Telangana. “The MPs would have to fight until the Centre spells out, in clear and unambiguous terms, what its policy is,” he said.
The Chief Minister asked the MPs to corner the Centre for its stepmotherly treatment to the State in the procurement of paddy. The Centre, which was expected to procure 90 per cent of Kharif paddy, was now saying it would procure only 60 lakh tonnes of paddy (40 lakh tonnes of rice).
Members of the parliamentary party expressed their deep sense of dissatisfaction over the Centre not acquiescing to any of the TRS’ demands on procurement of paddy, even though Ministers and officials made a representation on the same to Union Minister Piyush Goyal.
They expressed anger at the Centre for not clearing the air on how much Rabi paddy it would take from Telangana, even though sowing had started. They sought an annual calendar of how much paddy the Centre would take from the State for both Rabi and Kharif seasons.
Cabinet to discuss paddy issue today
HYDERABAD: The Telangana State Cabinet will meet at Pragathi Bhavan here on Monday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. The meeting is being held in light of the Centre not accepting the state government’s demand to procure 90 per cent of Kharif paddy and the Centre’s refusal to procure parboiled rice in Rabi season.
The Cabinet is also expected to discuss preparedness of the Medical and Health Department in facing the possible threat of a third wave of the pandemic due to the new Coronavirus variant