Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Andhra Pradesh unit president Somu Veerraju on Thursday wrote an open letter to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, requesting him to ensure that paddy farmers get the Minimum Support Price (MSP) announced by the Central government.
“The procurement of paddy is marred in irregularities as pointed out by YSR Congress Party MP Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose. The Chief Minister must break his silence, else the middlemen, who are in cahoots with the millers, will continue to cheat farmers,” said Mr. Veerraju.
The BJP leader alleged that the ‘re-milling mafia’ was ruling the roost, with the ‘blessings of some ruling party leaders who were calling the shots in the government’.
The gravity of the loss by the farmers was evident from the fact that the addresses and other details of around 17,000 farmers were missing from the records as alleged by Mr. Bose.
Farmers should be paid ₹1,455 for a bag of paddy weighing 75 kg. However, the farmers were getting less than ₹1,200 thanks to exploitation by millers and staff of some Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs), alleged Mr. Veerraju.
He further claimed that ₹50 was being deducted for every percentage of moisture content in the paddy that got drenched in the recent rain. As a result, farmers were losing heavily, he added.
