Hyderabad: BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday accused Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao of enacting a fresh drama by demanding that the Centre purchase paddy, instead of rice. “This is only to divert the attention of the people from his government’s failures,” Sanjay alleged.
The MP told the media in Delhi that the Chief Minister should first explain why he had announced the closure of paddy procurement centres during the Rabi season. “The Centre never said it wouldn’t purchase rice from the state. Even on Monday, Union minister Piyush Goyal said the Centre would purchase any quantity of raw rice. It is the state government that said it won’t procure paddy from farmers this season.”
“All these days, KCR has been demanding that the Centre purchase parboiled rice from TS, though the state had given a written undertaking to the Centre against supply of parboiled rice. Now, he has come up with a fresh demand that the Centre should purchase only paddy, not rice,” he said.
He said it is the Centre that pays every single rupee to the farmers towards paddy purchase while the state government would only do brokering.
Sanjay noted that the CM had warned the farmers against raising paddy, while he had allegedly raised paddy in the fields of his farmhouse. “It was the BJP who encouraged the farmers to go ahead with paddy cultivation.Why is there an issue only in Telangana and not in any other state,” he asked.
Quoting Piyush Goyal’s comments, the BJP state president said the Centre would definitely purchase raw rice from the state. “The Union minister told Parliament that the TS had no proper assessment and guidelines on paddy procurement.”
He alleged that large-scale irregularities were committed in paddy procurement by state ministers, TRS MLAs and party leaders. “We have all the evidence. Order an inquiry.”
Reacting to Chandrashekar Rao’s claim that the TRS would win 95 seats in the Assembly elections, Sanjay said it showed that the Chief Minister had lost his mental balance after watching the BJP victory in four states. "In fact, survey reports say the BJP would get 95 seats and the TRS either nine or five seats,” he claimed.
On the CM’s outbursts against the film The Kashmir Files, Sanjay asked, “Why is KCR bothered when the film sought to educate the people about the massacre of Kashmiri Pandits?”
