Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has criticised Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress on the issue of paddy procurement stating that the two parties were ‘spreading lies’ on the issue and doing ‘great injustice’ to farmers.
Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, TRS MLA and chairman of the Public Undertaking Committee (PUC) A. Jeevan Reddy said that Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy does not know about agriculture and paddy and was only ‘spreading lies’ on the issue of procurement.
He suggested Mr. Kishan Reddy to find out whether the Telangana government had given the undertaking on not supplying parboiled rice from this year on its own or under pressure from the Department of Food and Public Distribution as a pre-condition to lift 20 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice produced during the rabi season of 2020-21. Mr. Jeevan Reddy also sought to know that the undertaking was not changeable as the Constitution of the country had already been amended about 100 times so far.
Terming the Union Minister a ‘political tourist’ to Telangana, the TRS MLA said that except for making provocative and misleading statements, he did nothing for the State so far. “If Mr. Kishan Reddy really wanted to help farmers of Telangana, he could pursue with the Centre for lifting of entire paddy/rice produced in the kharif season and also convince it to take parboiled rice produced in the State in rabi season,” he said. “Entire Telangana will hail Mr. Kishan Reddy and other Union Ministers if they protect the interests of paddy farmers,” he added.
Mr. Jeevan Reddy also criticised TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy and asked him to make AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi protest in front of the Prime Minister’s residence in support of Telangana farmers.
Minister for Energy G. Jagadish Reddy, Government Whip Balka Suman, MLAs Mutha Gopal, S. Saidi Reddy and J. Surender also spoke separately and criticised BJP MPs Bandi Sanjay and Dharmapuri Aravind on the issue and sought to know where they were when KCR was agitating for statehood to Telangana.
TRS MPs’ protest
Meanwhile, TRS MPs continued their protest on the issue of paddy procurement in Lok Sabha for the second day on Tuesday. They raised slogans and displayed placards by reaching the Speaker’s podium requesting the Centre not to do injustice to Telangana and announce a uniform foodgrains procurement policy.
