Hyderabad: Former TPCC president, Nalgonda MP Uttam Kumar on Tuesday urged the Telangana government to allot Rs 5,000 crore as bonus for procurement of paddy in the Yasangi season. He said chief minister Chandrashekar Rao and Prime Minister Narenrda Modi are against farmers.
Addressing the media at Gandhi Bhavan here, Uttam said the BJP government at the Centre and the TRS government in the state have been cheating the farmers. He said the Congress would not accept any restriction on paddy cultivation in the state.
He called upon the farmers to sow paddy in the Rabi season and said the Congress would see to it that the Centre and the state government procured the grains. The Congress would stand with the farmers and fight on behalf of them in the assembly and Parliament, he said.
“While the Centre has given a target of procuring 60 lakh tonnes of paddy in Telangana, till date the state government has procured only 54 lakh tonnes,” he said.
He noted that in the previous Rabi season, paddy was sown on 53 lakh acres. This year, sowing was not taking place due to the “double standards” of the state government, he said.
Expressing surprise at the announcement of Union Minister Piyush Goel that MSP applies only to rice, not to paddy, Uttam wondered whether the Centre is working for the benefit of farmers or for the rice millers.
He said that during the discussion in Parliament on malnutrition, he has raised the issue of farmer suicides in Telangana due to the failure of the Central and state governments. The Centre did not procure even half the target given to the state, he said.
AICC secretary Sampath Kumar, Kisan Congress leader Kodanda Reddy, Mallu Ravi and others were present.
