Kishan Reddy Hits Out At TRS Government Over Paddy Issue

Union Minister G Kishan Reddy today lashed out at state government over the paddy procurement fracas, and alleged that the ruling TRS had brought the issue of parboiled rice to the fore only after facing a humiliating defeat in the Huzurabad Assembly constituency by-election.

He alleged that the state government had not yet given raw rice to the union government, but was going on hankering about the parboiled rice.

He added that stocks of parboiled rice were lying in the godowns, since no one used parboiled rice, with even children not eating it. Most states of the country had reduced its production, he claimed.

Talking about the track record of the BJP government at the Centre on paddy procurement, he said that as against Rs. 3,400 crore spent by the union government in 2014 for the procurement of paddy, it had spent Rs. 26,600 crore last year.

He added that the union government would procure paddy only as per the agreement that it had executed with the Telangana government. He also said that it was unrealistic to expect the union government to procure all the paddy produced in the country, given that stocks of rice procured over the last six years were lying idle, and that the rice would be wasted if it was bought for political reasons.

He said that the pile-up of rice had happened despite Rs. 2.6 lakh crore worth of rice being distributed free of cost to the people of the country.

Commenting on the rise in the prices of petrol and diesel in the country, Reddy blamed the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia for the sudden increase in the prices.