HYDERABAD: Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Friday alleged that BRS leaders were spreading canards over the paddy procurement issue and misleading the farmers.
Countering BRS working president KT Rama Rao’s claims, the minister said that the former’s sole agenda was to create “politically manufactured chaos among the farmers”. “But it would backfire on them,” he added.
In a press statement issued here, Uttam said that the Congress government was executing the largest paddy procurement operation in the state’s history despite severe manpower shortages, massive logistical challenges and an unprecedented scale of arrivals. “The BRS is busy spreading falsehoods and creating confusion. But the government is ensuring that every grain brought by farmers is procured,” he said.
Rejecting Rama Rao’s allegations, he said: “Till May 21, the state had recorded 54.29 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy arrivals, of which 46.21 LMT had already been procured. That means around 85 per cent procurement has been completed.”
“Procurement transactions of more than 6.32 lakh farmers have been completed and Rs 7,841 crore directly credited into their bank accounts,” he added.
The minister hailed the process as a “record-breaking Rabi procurement operation happening on a war footing across the state”.
He pointed out that during the BRS regime, procurement stood at just 26.78 LMT in Rabi 2021–22 and 36.63 LMT in Rabi 2022–23, whereas the Congress government had already procured 46.21 LMT this season with procurement operations still continuing.
Uttam recalled that during the previous Rabi season under Congress rule in 2024–25 (as on May 22, 2025), Telangana recorded an all-time high procurement of 60.44 LMT, with MSP payments touching Rs 10,882 crore. “Those who failed farmers for years are now unable to digest the scale and transparency of the Congress government’s farmer-first procurement model,” he said.
The minister termed the allegations that the state is facing gunny bags shortage as “completely fabricated and irresponsible”. He said that nearly 20 crore gunny bags were available across the state and adequate stocks were available to handle the entire procurement process. “More than 13,000 trucks were deployed and over 43 LMT of paddy has already been shifted to rice mills,” he said.
