HYDERABAD: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy here on Friday questioned Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for not meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the burning paddy procurement issue. He wondered why ministers K.T. Rama Rao and T. Harish Rao had skipped the group which camped in New Delhi over paddy procurement.
Speaking to reporters here at Gandhi Bhavan, the Congress state president said purchasing paddy from farmers was the prime responsibility of the state. Setting up of paddy purchasing centres by the Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) was the responsibility of the state government not the Centre’s, he said.
The Chief Minister had assured the farmers that the last grain of paddy would be purchased. If the Chief Minister staged fast-unto-death agitation in New Delhi over the paddy issue, the Congress would make all arrangements and party activists would give protection to him, he said. Revanth Reddy reiterated that the Congress was ready to take up responsibility of paddy procurement, if the state government allocated Rs 10,000 crore.
The TPCC president alleged that the BJP and the TRS created unnecessary problems over paddy procurement. The BJP-led Centre hiked petrol, diesel and LPG cylinder prices and the TRS imposed the burden of Rs 12,000 crore on people by increasing power charges. Revanth Reddy said the TRS government was responsible for the power crisis in Telangana.
Revanth Reddy said a few influential persons were responsible for default of power bills of Rs 6,000 crore. The TRS government cleverly gave sops to people and was getting them back by hiking power charges, he said.
Revanth Reddy said Mahila Congress would stage agitation against hike in LPG cylinder prices on March 31. Agitations would be held in front of electricity engineers offices on March 30 at mandal and Assembly constituency level. Rallies would be taken out on April 4 and on April 5 they would besiege collectorates. The civil supplies building and Vidyut Soudha would be besieged on Monday, he said.
