HYDERABAD: The TRS began attacking the BJP on the issue of procurement of Rabi paddy only after it lost the byelection to Huzurabad Assembly seat to the saffron party, Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G Kishan Reddy said on Sunday.
Replying to a question at a news conference here, the Union Minister said the TRS, unable to come to terms with its defeat in the byelection, began spewing venom on the BJP in the form of agitations on the paddy issue.
“But the people knew the kind of party the TRS is and elected Eatala Rajender. The people know Eatala joined the BJP unable to continue in KCR-family dominated TRS and welcomed his decision,” Kishan Reddy said. He said that there was no issue at all as far as paddy rice procurement is concerned.
“Even now the Centre is committed to lifting all the raw rice for which it had signed an agreement with the State government last year. We will continue procuring till the last grain. There can be no doubt about that,” Kishan Reddy said.
The Union Minister did not agree with the demand of the TRS that the Centre should procure paddy instead of rice. He said that the Centre cannot do this because the FCI does not have the wherewithal needed to procure paddy because for a very long time, the state, which has the infrastructure, has been doing it. “The FCI can only take rice, not paddy,” Kishan Reddy said.
The Union Minister reiterated that it is out of angst that the TRS had lost the Huzurabad byelection that it was raking up an issue and was organising protests all over the State.
As far as parboiled rice, which is the only type of rice that is obtained from Rabi paddy, is concerned, the Union Minister said that the FCI had already enough parboiled rice stocks which had no demand. “The Centre cannot export parboiled rice directly but it can only encourage the private sector to do so but it is also not showing interest since there is no demand even outside India,” Kishan Reddy said.
Asked for his reaction to the Chief Minister’s announcement that he might sit on a dharna in Delhi, the Union Minister said that the former was free to do as he liked but he should realise that the Centre had been procuring rice like never before from Telangana. “It procured rice worth Rs 3,400 crore in 2014 which has shot up to Rs 26,600 crore last year,” the BJP leader said.
He took exception to the TRS leaders’ comment that he was under the delusion that he would remain a Minister for life. “I know my position is temporary. In fact, I did not know that one day, I would become a Union Minister. As long as I am in this position, I do what my party asks me to do. I am committed to my party and its philosophy. I am not one who switches parties. I do not need any certificate (of whether he was doing the right thing or not) from KCR or his family,” he said.
Rs 26.6k cr worth rice was procured by the Centre last year, compared to `3,400 crore in 2014, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy said.