CM calls emergency Cabinet meeting today, State govt may buy paddy

Hyderabad: The state government may decide on Tuesday to purchase all the paddy grown in the state in the Rabi season, according to sources. To this end, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has convened an emergency Cabinet meeting at Pragathi Bhavan on Tuesday.

Sources said the government would purchase the paddy at a minimum support price to rescue farmers, irrespective of whether or not the Centre would procure the output, by opening procurement centres across the state. The CM dropped hints in this regard while addressing a dharna on paddy procurement in Delhi on Monday.

The CM who had camped in Delhi since April 3 returned to Hyderabad on Monday after the dharna in Delhi on the paddy procurement issue.

"Our dharna in Delhi evoked huge response nationally. We are not bothered about whether our dharna will succeed or not in making the Centre procure paddy. Our main purpose was to let people across the country know what the Telangana farmers want. We have succeeded in this,” Rao said.

“Telangana government is not that weak or so poor that it cannot find a solution to the problem on its own. We will take a final decision on this issue in a day or two," the CM had said, indicating the government’s mind.

The Cabinet is also expected to come up with an action plan on future course of agitation programmes against Centre on paddy and other issues concerning the people.

Sources said the CM was of the view that the TRS government was successful in projecting the BJP government at the Centre as guilty in the people's court over paddy procurement, with its series of agitations since November last that culminated in the dharna in Delhi.