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The issue of paddy procurement has taken a political turn in Telangana with the ruling TRS deciding to hold dharnas across the State on Friday, even as the BJP called for protests at all the district headquarters on Thursday demanding the State to procure the kharif paddy from farmers without any delay.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has asked its cadre to take the required permissions from the authorities and protest against the Centre’s refusal to purchase paddy from Telangana on November 12.
Pushed to the wall by the Opposition parties on the procurement of rabi paddy, TRS Founder-President and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has decided to “expose the Bharatiya Janata Party”, which, he alleged, was trying to play a double game. “While the BJP Government at Delhi is saying it is not buy the parboiled rice from Telangana, its State unit is inciting farmers to grow paddy. We will expose them and organise protest dharnas across the State,” the Chief Minister said.
The farmers in the State are in a fix now whether to go for paddy or not. Since the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is refusing to buy the rabi parboiled paddy, the State asked the farmers to grow paddy only if they had any contract agreements with millers or with seed manufacturers.
Meanwhile, hundreds of activists of Bharatiya Kisan Moracha, the farmers’ wing of BJP, took part in dharnas at all the district headquarters in the State, criticising the State for delaying the kharif procurement.
They alleged that though the Union Government has agreed to buy 60 lakh tonnes of kharif rice, the State is deliberately delaying the procurement process.
Telangana Rythu Sangham, a CPM-affiliated farmers’ association, had already organised protests in villages and mandals, asking the State Government to come out with a plan suggesting alternatives to the farmers.
They alleged that the Government introduced a token system this time in some districts for paddy harvesting, which is delaying the procurement process inordinately.
“The procurement process is happening very slowly,” T Sagar, Secretary of the association, said.
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