TRS MPs Stage Protest Over Paddy, Rajya Sabha Adjourned

On the third day of the Parliament's winter session, TRS MPs staged a protest in the Rajya Sabha and outside demanding that the Centre procure paddy from Telangana.

The MPs stormed the well of the elders' house despite Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu asking them to stop protesting. They displayed placards and protested by squatting for some time.

The MPs were protesting against the Centre not coming up a national farm policy and an MSP Act, and "not doing justice" to Telangana. They claimed that the Centre was deliberately delaying the process of procuring paddy, and demanded that it lift paddy from Telangana immediately.

The Centre should also reply on how much paddy it would procure from the state, and act without any partiality, they demanded.

They also wanted the fixing of a yearly target for paddy to be procured, besides the formulation of an MSP Act for farm produce across the country.

With the MPs' intransigent stir, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned to the next day by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

Meanwhile, outside Parliament, at the Gandhi statue, the TRS Lok Sabha MPs too staged a protest with the same demands. They also demanded a debate in the session on all the farmer-related issues.

They also reiterated their demand that the Centre give Rs 25 lakh as compensation to the kin of each of 750 deceased farmers.