HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), making its demand of ‘one nation-one foodgrain procurement policy’ a nation-wide issue, is all set to stage what it called the biggest ever protest against the Centre, to be spearheaded by party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, in the national capital on Monday.
Joining the protest would be party working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao, many TRS bigwigs, including ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs.
The TRS is demanding that the Centre buy all the paddy that has been produced in the state during the current Yasangi (rabi) season without any pre-conditions.
Meanwhile, even as the TRS is geared up for the protest, the Telangana BJP, on its part, announced that it would hold a ‘maha dharna’ at Indira Park here on Monday with a counter-demand that the state government buy paddy from farmers.
It will be attended by Union minister V. Muralidharan, state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar and party leaders.
Before leaving for New Delhi for the protest, state agriculture minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy told reporters at RGI airport on Sunday that Telangana wanted
“The Centre should have acted earlier in the interests of farmers. The state government is left with no option but to stage its biggest protest against the Union government in the national capital.”
In New Delhi, MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha said that the schemes and policies of the Centre were a threat to the national food security system and TRS would fight for protecting the interests of farmers.
Reminding that it was Chandrashekar Rao who turned a “barren Telangana into a prosperous land,” Kavitha warned the BJP government at the Centre saying “no government has prospered at the cost of farmers.”
