KCR politicising procurement for selfish ends: Kishan

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is “sacrificing the Telangana farmers’ interests for the sake of political capital” with his wavering stance on paddy procurement and the only reason is to “paint the Central Government and the BJP as the villain”, charged Union Minister for Tourism G. Kishan Reddy on Friday.

While there is no change in the Centre’s procurement policy and will buy every grain of raw rice this season also as per the prior agreement made with the State government, the TRS regime seems to have decided to politicise the issue, he said, at a press conference in New Delhi.

“Why is there no problem with Andhra Pradesh or Maharashtra having a similar climate and agri seasons? Farmers grow paddy and raw rice or parboiled rice depends on the milling so where is the role of the Centre?,” he asked. The Central Government spends every paisa of the tax payers’ money to procure the paddy through the state government and later the raw rice is given to the Food Corporation of India (FCI), he said and questioned the change in TRS government stance.

The Union Minister claimed that the Centre has not been given any information on the extent of paddy cultivated and how much the TS government wishes to keep for local consumption and how much will be given to the central pool this season while last season’s promised procurement has not happened still.

“The TRS leaders led by KCR have decided to abuse the BJP and the Modi Government on every pretext for political reasons. I request him (CM) not to instigate people by making false statements and resort to fake propaganda,” said Mr. Reddy. Instead of blaming the Centre on the hike in fuel and gas prices, the TRS Government should reduce the taxes just like every other government across the nation has done to reduce the burden on the people, he suggested.

The BJP government had written several letters and even gave funds for Sainik school, MMTS phase 2, tribal museum and so on, but there has been no response from the state government, he observed. “All these only show that KCR is hell bent on perpetuating his dictatorial and family rule in Telangana”, he added.