Hyderabad: Union minister and BJP state president G. Kishan Reddy advised Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy to begin his proposed padayatra from the paddy fields to know the plight of the farmers and charged that the state government had not yet started the paddy procurement at Indira Kranti Patham (IKP) centres even two months after farmers got their produce.
Kishan Reddy was speaking after visiting IKP centres at Revannapally and Pochampally in Yadadri-Bhongir district. Many farmers complained their paddy was ready for two months, but the government had not started procurement. They also complained that many farmers sold their paddy in the open market at Rs 1,900.
“Earlier, KCR acted in the same manner,” Kishan Reddy said, referring to former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. “He staged a protest in Delhi citing silly reasons on paddy procurement, though he knew that the Centre would pay every single rupee with interest for the paddy procured.”
He said the Manmohan Singh government procured 24 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy from Telangana in 2014, which the Narendra Modi government had increased to 93 LMT and was paying Rs 27,000 crore.
