Ahead of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s (TRS) protest planned at New Delhi on April 11 demanding the Centre/Food Corporation of India to procure paddy produced (parboiled rice) this rabi season, working president of the party and Minister K.T. Rama Rao has termed the ongoing struggle not just the “fight of the farmer but the struggle for self-respect of Telangana”.
Mr. Rama Rao’s comments made on a social media platform on Saturday assume significance in the backdrop of the Governor Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan’s visit to Delhi and her meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on all issues pertaining to Telangana including the raging issue of paddy procurement, on which the TRS is organising a series of protests from April 4.
With the intentions of the BJP-led Government at the Centre getting clearer by day, the ruling TRS in Telangana is also understood to have decided to up the ante with no other option available for it ahead of the election year (2023).
“We have a gigantic problem on our hands now as the production of paddy this season is estimated to be about 90 lakh tonnes and keeping aside the seed crop and that for the consumption of producer families (families), about 70 lakh tonnes is expected to reach the market or available for procurement. Clarity on the issue is likely to come after April 11 protest in Delhi”, a senior leader engaged in making arrangements for the protest said.
Irrespective of the Centre’s decision, which is more evidently to be “no” now, the State Government is working out a strategy to bail out the farmers who raised the crop on a large scale and to portray BJP and the Centre as villains, another senior leader of TRS considered close to the leadership said, when contacted.
After the Centre/FCI forced the State Government to given an undertaking that it (Telangana) would not supply parboiled rice from the next (this) rabi season as a pre-condition to lift the parboiled rice processed during the last Rabi season, the State Government has made a fervent appeal to the farming community to go for alternative crops by explaining the Centre’s stand, the TRS leader explained.
However, the State leadership of BJP carried out a fervent campaign asking farmers to go for paddy itself and that it would take the responsibility to make the Centre procure it and that the State Government has only a facilitator’s role in the entire procurement exercise. In the midst of such a confused situation, the farming community has cultivated paddy in about 36 lakh acres this Rabi season against 53 lakh acres during the last rabi.
The TRS think tank is apparently planning to publicise the statements of BJP leaders, particularly those made by State unit president Bandi Sanjay and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy, in which they clearly spoke of making the Centre to procure paddy produced in rabi, irrespective of the State Government’s appeal.
