Ministers, MPs Urge Centre For Clarity On Paddy

A team of Telangana ministers and MPs led by agriculture minister S Niranjan Reddy and R&B minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy today demanded in New Delhi that the Centre procure paddy and rice stocks from Telangana.

Addressing a press conference in the capital, the ministers along with MPs Keshava Rao and others urged the Centre to eliminate confusion and give clarity on the issue.

"We have come here to ask the Centre to give clarity," the ministers said. "We did not come here for politics, and only seek justice from the Centre. We procured stocks from the farmers in the state, and the Centre has to now take them."

The ministers claimed that the Telangana government offered plenty of support to the farmers through Rythu Bandhu, 24-hour free power, Rythu Bhima and other schemes. These added to the increase in irrigation led the farmers to cultivate more crops, and the Centre needed to buy them as usual, they said.

"With Monday we have procured 60 lakh metric tons of paddy from the farmers, and another 12 to 15 lakh metric tons need to be procured. The FCI has to now pick up these stocks from our state just as it does from Punjab and other states, and not play dramas at the behest of the Centre. And the Centre also need to give clarity on future crops," they said.