SIDDIPET: Finance Minister T Harish Rao dared the BJP national leaders to spell out how much Kharif paddy the Central government would buy before they arrived in Hyderabad for the two-day national executive meeting of the saffron party scheduled to begin on July 2.
He said that the Central government was deliberately creating problems for the Telangana government and the people by being cagey about figures of procurement. “The Centre is not procuring even raw rice. This is unfair,” he said.
Harish taunted BJP leaders asking whether they would tell the people that they were against releasing funds to the State. He said that though Niti Aayog had recommended releasing of `24,000 crore to Telangana, the Centre had ignored it.
He asked the BJP leaders whether they would admit that the railway coach factory that was to have been set up in Kazipet had been shifted to Gujarat because they did not bother much about the people of Telangana. He wanted to know whether they would confirm the scrapping of ITIR which was sanctioned for Telangana.
He questioned BJP leaders whether they would once again describe how they had humiliated people’s representatives by asking them to make people get used to eating broken rice (if rabi rice is milled for raw rice, most of it gets broken).
‘TRS govt with ryots’
The Finance Minister said that the State was constantly focusing on the welfare of the farmers and doing everything to benefit them. “From Tuesday, the government will deposit `7,500 crore of Rythu Bandhu scheme into farmers’ bank accounts,” he asserted.
Centre cagey about figures: Harish
Finance Minister Harish Rao said that the Central government was deliberately creating problems for the Telangana government and the people by being cagey about figures of procurement. “The Centre is not procuring even raw rice. This is unfair,” he said. In the rabi season, a row erupted between the State government and Centre over paddy procurement. Harish taunted BJP leaders whether they would tell the people that they were against releasing funds to the State. He said that though Niti Aayog had recommended releasing of `24,000 crore to Telangana, the Centre had ignored it