Piyush Goyal lashes out at TRS for blaming centre over paddy procurement

Hyderabad: Union minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday lashed out at the Telangana state government for trying to blame the Centre on the issue of paddy procurement, to cover up its own faults and failures.

He said that procurement of paddy and rice from the state had increased three-fold in the last five years, while the minimum support price (MSP) had increased significantly. These steps had increased the benefit to the state’s farmers by four to five times after BJP-led government came to power at the Centre.

Addressing the media in Delhi, Goyal, union food minister, said the TS government had failed to deliver the agreed-upon quantity of rice and paddy in last year’s rabi season. The state is yet to deliver about 27 lakh tonnes to the godowns of the Fod Corporation of India (FCI), he said.

The shortfall includes about 14 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice and 13 lakh tonnes of raw rice. Goyal said the Centre had agreed to procure an additional 20 lakh tonnes of parboiled rice grown in last year’s rabi season as a special gesture towards the farmers of Telangana although the country did not require this additional quantity. He said the Centre had repeatedly given extensions to the state government to deliver the rice.

On the issue of parboiled rice, Goyal said that FCI had enough stocks for four years, and the memorandum of understanding entered with the state government clearly says that the FCI’s purchase of rice for the central pool will depend on the demand in the rest of the country. The TS government had given a written commitment dated October 4, 2021, that the state will not deliver parboiled rice to the FCI in future.

The minister said that there was no issue regarding the purchase of raw rice, and the FCI had significantly increased purchases from the state. He said that the Centre had given top priority to the welfare of farmers all over the country, including Telangana. Goyal said the TS government should quickly supply the rice from last year’s rabi season as per the agreement, and that it should not mislead the farmers.

Responding to queries about the availability of train rakes and storage space, Goyal said there was no problem, and the state must supply the grain instead of making wild allegations.