As Health Minister Etala Rajender expressed his displeasure at the TRS government for its
controversial decision of shutting down the state's grain procurement centres, and raised his voice for the farmers, Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy today said that the farmers' produce would be procured through the purchase centres as usual.
Speaking at a program in Karimnagar, Reddy clarified that the government had never sanctioned the closure of any of the state's paddy procurement centres.
"We will continue to procure paddy and various other crops from the farmers in the routine fashion. We had never even sanctioned the closure of any paddy procurement centres to begin with - we had only asked for the removal of the additional procurement centres that had been started during the Covid-19 pandemic. We are a pro-farmer regime, and will continue to procure crops at the relevant MSPs," he said.
Where Rajender had earlier said that the farmers were racked by uncertainty over the issue of the procurement of their crops, Reddy's clarification will perhaps provide some comfort to Telangana's agrarian community.
While things are beginning to look up for the farmers of Telangana, the farmers from Punjab and Haryana are still out on the streets of Delhi, protesting against the Centre's three new farm Acts. The Centre's "failure" to address their issues has prompted many leaders to lash out at it - Congress MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy had
lambasted the NDA regime for "harassing" the farmers, just some days ago.