Rama Krishna Sangem
In a major decision, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on April 12, Tuesday said that his government would procure every single grain of paddy grown by farmers in the State during this Rabi (second crop) season. The CM KCR, who returned from Delhi on Monday after staging a Dharna there to protest against the Centre’s refusal to purchase entire second crop paddy, held a Cabinet meeting in Hyderabad and took this decision.
KCR said that no farmer should sell his/her produce to private traders below the MSP (minimum support price) of Rs 1,960 per qunital. The civil supplies department would make arrangements to lift entire harvest from farmers in the next few days. The CM asked all ministers to go to their respective districts and oversee the procurement arrangements. KCR addressed a media conference at Pragathi Bhavan after the Cabinet meeting.
KCR explained the crux of the dispute between the Centre and his government over the procurement of paddy of Rabi. “Usually, in Kharif season, the percentage of rice out of paddy is 67, but in Rabi, due to heat conditions, prevailing in April and May, the same would be around 35 per cent. The Centre should have purchased the entire stocks at the MSP to save the farmers as well as to maintain buffer stocks with the Food Corporation of India. But, unfortunately the Centre is unwilling to do it,” KCR said.
This may at the most put a burden of around Rs 5,000 crore on the Centre, he explained.
KCR, who is cobbling together regional parties at the national level to take on the Narendra Modi-led BJP government, is of the view that the Centre is reluctant to bear the cost of MSP for Rabi crop from Telangana.”This is because, they (Centre) want to weaken the states, which is against to the spirit of federalism enshrined in our Constitution,” said KCR. Moreover, the BJP leaders have no idea of problems faced by farmers of this country.
The Modi government which wrote off Rs 10.50 lakh crore for rich corporate bank defaulters is not ready to bear the cost of around Rs 4,000-5,000 crore to purchase Rabi paddy (with more broken rice percentage) from our farmers. Isn’t it shame on us?” he asked.
KCR vowed to intensify his fight against the BJP at the national level in the days to come. He lamented the policies of BJP ruled Karnataka government which is targeting Muslims for no reason. “They are unnecessarily raking up issues like Hijab, Halal etc,” the CM said.
Permitting six more private universities including one from a consortium led by CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), filling up of 3,500 jobs in government universities, appointing a panel to study means to protect two rivers – Musi, Isa – near Hyderabad city, even after abolishing a two decade old GO (government order) No 111 (which bans real estate around water bodies, are some other decisions of KCR’s Cabinet.
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