HYDERABAD: Alleging that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and his Cabinet colleagues were spreading falsehoods on procurement of paddy and other grains, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Friday demanded that the state government publish a white paper on the purchase process.
Speaking to reporters here, Rama Rao demanded that the state Cabinet, scheduled to meet on Saturday, should discuss this pressing issue and take suitable decisions to bail out farmers. “The government claims that no farmer died by suicide, even though the BRS provided all the data,” he said. “Every day, farmers are staging protests on roads. The same problem persists even in the Kodangal Assembly segment, represented by the chief minister,” he said, while highlighting issues such as shortage of gunny bags, reduction of paddy during weighing and others.
“Chief minister says that 80% procurement has been completed. The ministers say that only 50% procurement has been completed. But in reality not even 30% has been done so far,” he said, adding that he was ready for any punishment if the government proves it had completed 80% procurement.
‘CM protected Bandi’s son for nine days’
Rama Rao, meanwhile, accused Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who also holds the Home portfolio, of protecting Sai Bhageerath, son of MoS for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar and accused in the POCSO case, for nine days. “But the minor girl’s mother was forced to wait at the police station till midnight to lodge the complaint,” he alleged.
The BRS leader said that they never politicised the case as it was sensitive in nature and pertaining to a minor girl. “But shielding an accused in a POCSO case for nine days has never happened in the country,” he said, demanding that the government order a probe into it.
The former minister dared Revanth Reddy and Bandi Sanjay to disclose who gave the idea to file a counter case against the victim, projecting it as a “honey trap”. “The accused evaded arrest only because he was the son of an Union minister and was protected by the chief minister,” he alleged.
Clarifying that he had no personal disputes with Bandi Sanjay and never attacked him personally, he said: “The BRS highlighted the case only to render justice to the victim.”
On the chief minister speaking about the drug case against Rama Rao’s brother-in-law, the BRS leader wondered why the police failed to register a case so far.
