Congress leader and MP A Revanth Reddy today wrote an open letter to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and demanded that the latter immediately take steps to implement the MSP system for the farmers of the state.
Reddy also demanded that the CM set up food grain procurement centres in all of Telangana's villages so that the farmers' produce could be procured easily. He claimed that this would ensure that the farmers themselves did not have to spend money on travelling long distances to access sellers, and would help them save on their input costs significantly.
In his letter, the MP also claimed that 60 lakh farmers of the state needed the support of the government to sell their crops, and pointed out that it was the responsibility of the CM to procure all the crops at the MSP. He asked the CM not to treat the state's farming community unjustly simply to "win the favour" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
(Many Congress leaders have made similar statements since
KCR's "U-turn" on the issue of the implementation of the three farm Acts came shortly after his visit to the national capital.)
Reddy alleged that the Telangana government's decision to implement the laws was shameful, especially as many BJP-led states had also rejected the same. He reminded the CM that even the Centre had taken a step back from implementing its controversial agrarian legislations following the farmers' protests in Delhi, and had promised the farmers that it would halt the execution of the laws for one-and-a-half years.
He reportedly also warned the CM that the Congress would hold extensive protest programs if the demands outlined in the letter were not fulfilled.
The Congress has been quite vocal about its disapproval of the Centre's laws. Revanth Reddy himself had embarked on a much-publicised
Rajiv Rythu Bharosa Yatra, a 140-km-long padayatra, to protest the new farm Acts.