HYDERABAD: Blaming the government for the current crisis in paddy procurement, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Thursday said that “the countdown has begun for a government that failed even to weigh and procure crops after 60 days.”
The BRS leader demanded that the state Cabinet meeting, scheduled for May 23, discuss the procurement issue and announce corrective measures. He urged the government to procure every grain lying in heaps at procurement centres without further delay and ensure that farmers immediately receive their payments.
In an open letter to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, the legislator from Sircilla also demanded that the state government announce an ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakh each to the families of farmers who reportedly lost their lives near procurement centres due to the “negligence of government”.
Alleging that the chief minister failed the farming community, he said that the Congress government pushed farmers into unprecedented distress through administrative negligence, failed procurement management by adopting anti-farmer policies.
He said that farmers who once cultivated with confidence and dignity during the BRS government were today being forced onto the streets in despair. He alleged that the Congress government systematically dismantled every farmer welfare and protection mechanism introduced during the BRS regime.
The government failed to provide investment support, failed to supply fertilisers and now collapsed the entire procurement system, he said.
