Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy has alleged that Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has been playing political drama in the name of dharna at New Delhi and wondered how the Chief Minister had given an undertaking to the Centre that State would not supply parboiled rice.
Mr. Revanth Reddy posed 10 questions to the Chief Minister on Monday and asked the rationale behind holding dharna at New Delhi demanding Centre to procure paddy while giving a letter to Centre on October 4, 2021, stating that parboiled rice would not be supplied. “Who has given you a right to furnish a letter to the Centre that parboiled rice would not be supplied? How can you play with the lives of farming community?” he asked.
Referring to the statement made by the Chief Minister in February 2021 that the State had incurred a loss of ₹7,500 crore due to paddy procurement and the government would not be setting up any more procurement centres, the TPCC president said that it appears that the idea of not procuring paddy had already taken shape then itself.
Recalling the video conference meetings held by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) on February 25 and March 8 to prepare the action plan for summer procurement and the State government officials informing the Centre that they would not supply paddy, Mr. Revanth Reddy asked if this was not the reason for Telangana not figuring in the summer paddy procurement plan of the FCI.
“Arrangements for paddy procurement should commence in the month of March. Had the government been serious about the issue, why was the process of establishing procurement centres, allocation of quota to rice millers and finalising of tenders for transportation not completed? Is it not true that paddy farmers are making distress selling to the middlemen and farmers are going to incur a loss of ₹3,000 crore?” the TPCC chief asked.
Informing that Telangana is part of decentralised procurement system (DPS) and it was the responsibility of the State to open procurement centres, The TPCC president wondered what purpose holding a dharna at New Delhi would serve that too without fulfilling the responsibility of governance in the State.
“During last summer season the Civil Supplies Corporation has earned a commission of ₹ 447 crore through which it was able to meet expenditures. How can THE Corporation survive without procurement?” Mr. Revanth Reddy asked, adding that by bearing a loss of ₹1,500 crore State can address the problem of procurement instead of allowing the farmers to lose ₹3,000 crore in the hands of middlemen.
