HYDERABAD: Demanding that the Central government procure the entire stock of Rabi paddy produced in Telangana, the State’s ruling TRS has threatened to intensify its agitation after Ugadi.
Speaking to reporters here on Saturday, Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy said that all the local bodies in the State, right from Gram Panchayat to Municipality, will adopt resolutions before April 1 and send the same to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demand that the Centre procure Rabi paddy.
The Ministers, who returned from Delhi after their talks with Union Minister Piyush Goyal were inconclusive, met Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday.
As per the directions of the CM, Niranjan along with other Ministers, announced that the TRS would take up a series of agitations after Ugadi, which marks the Telugu New Year on April 2.
While the Centre said that it would procure raw rice, Telangana said that Rabi paddy produced in the State would be useful only for parboiled rice. As the Centre refused to procure parboiled rice, the TRS decided to organise agitations against the Modi government.
Niranjan said that during the talks in Delhi, “Union Minister Piyush Goyal suggested that Telangana government should get its people to cultivate the habit of eating rice grits (nookalu). This is nothing but insulting the people of Telangana. Rabi paddy of Telangana would be useful only for parboiled rice. We demand that the Centre procure paddy instead of rice from Telangana as it did in Punjab,” the Minister said.
He said that those who insulted Telangana including the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy bit the dust. He demanded that Union Minister G Kishan Reddy and BJP State president Bandi Sanjay prevail upon the Centre to procure the Rabi paddy.
“You will witness Ugra Telangana (fierce Telangana) after Ugadi. We will conduct agitational programmes peacefully till Ugadi,” Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar said. Roads and Buildings Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy said that Piyush Goyal had informed them that only raw rice which could be sold in markets would be procured from Telangana. “The Union Minister spoke like a businessman and not like a Minister,” Prasanth Reddy alleged.