TPCC head and MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy today unveiled the schedule for a massive agitation against the decision of the TRS government to shut down the state's crop procurement centres and to implement the Centre's new farm Acts.
Reddy, along with CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, MLC Jeevan Reddy, MLAs Sridhar Babu and Jagga Reddy, TPCC Working President Ponnam Prabhakar and several office bearers of the Kisan Congress, today participated in a meeting convened by All-India Kisan Congress Vice Chairman Kodanda Reddy and Telangana Kisan Congress Chairman Anvesh Reddy.
At the meeting, the leaders had a detailed discussion on the impact of the recent decisions taken by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on the state's farming community.
Addressing a press conference later, the TPCC Chief condemned the CM for his decision to implement the Centre's new farm laws, saying that that would be detrimental to the farmers' interests, and added that the Congress would fight the move tooth and nail.
"We will organise demonstrations across all the mandal headquarters in Telangana from December 30 to January 8 to protest the CM's decision to accept the Centre's new laws, and to shut down the procurement centres across rural Telangana. We will also submit memoranda to all the Mandal Revenue Officers on the matter. On January 11, protests will be held at all the district headquarters as well. This will be followed by a state-wide agitation on January 18. We will also hold a Round Table Conference in the next two or three days," he said.
The Congress leader also alleged that after deciding to implement the three new laws, KCR had no moral right to continue as the Chief Minister of the state.
"Where a majority of the population of Telangana is dependent on agriculture, KCR and his government are neglecting the farm sector. They are implementing the new laws solely to benefit the corporates while hurting the interest of the farmers. The government has no right to shut down the procurement centres leaving the farmers to their fate and making them vulnerable to exploitation at the hands of big industrialists," he said.
Strongly condemning the CM's justification of the decisions, that the government was not a rice or dal mill, the Congress MP asked the latter whether it was a broker for contractors instead.
Addressing the CM's claims that the government had procured agricultural produce from the farmers despite facing a loss of Rs 7,500 crore, he said that even if this claim was true, the government had spent nearly Rs 10 lakh crore on the state since its formation in 2014, making the aforementioned losses insignificant.
Reddy also alleged that the losses were caused not due to the fault of the farmers but due to the incompetence of the KCR government itself.
He also called out the TRS regime for its hypocrisy, and said that it should never have pretended to oppose the laws if it had planned to implement them all along.
"KCR made compromises with the BJP on the issue of the implementation of the farm Acts after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders during
his Delhi visit. His behaviour over the past few days has proved that he is interested only in securing his own profit," Reddy said.
He also accused the BJP and the TRS of constantly colluding with each other while also pretending to be bitter rivals. "The TRS and BJP are cut from the same cloth, and have both sold out lakhs of farmers to a few corporates," he claimed.
Reiterating the Congress' stand against the laws and against the CM's decision to implement them, the TPCC head said that the party would intensify its agitations until the CM withdrew his decision to shut down the procurement centres.
CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka voiced his agreement with Reddy's views and said that KCR's "pro-farmer mask" had finally been ripped off.