A day after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced withdrawal of procurement centres of farm produce from villages as farmers were permitted to sell their stocks anywhere under the new farm laws of the Centre, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sensed a “conspiracy” and said any attempt to blame the Central government for the farmers woes in Telangana using this as a ruse will be strongly opposed on Monday.
“We will appreciate if Mr. Rao really believes in the Farm Acts but if there is a selfish motive, we will take the fight to his farmhouse. He is saying procurement centres will be removed on this premise, it is not there in any Act. In fact, we have been demanding the government to increase the number of procurement centres and also convert farmers centres,” said party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar.
At a press conference, he demanded the government take up awareness programmes in all villages on agriculture operations for farmers benefit across the State to convince people of the true intent of supporting the Farm Acts because there is a debate everywhere about the hidden agenda behind the latest u-turn.
Flanked by MLC N. Ramchander Rao, ex-MP Vivek Venkatswamy, general secretary Premander Reddy and others, Mr. Sanjay Kumar went ballistic against the Chief Minister calling him – “U-Turn CM.”
“Did he not change his mind on supplying free fertilizer to farmers? Is he not doing the same with the registration process? Did he not brush off Coronavirus and is now sporting a face mask and sanitiser? What happened to his regulated farming, and demanding farmers grow fine rice,” he questioned.
The BJP chief advised Mr. Rao to shed his “monarch-like” attitude and “feudal approach” and hold discussions with domain experts and Opposition before taking up any major decision. His policies, which can even “put Tughlaq to shame” has led to heavy losses to the farmers, big dent to the exchequer and affected the poor the most.”
The TRS should also pay for damages caused to properties during the “sarkari bandh” recently in which no farmer from the State participated, he said.
“There is something amiss in his change of attitude since he has a record of deceiving people by diverting attention. How can he claim loss of ₹7,500 crore for procurement when the Centre is paying for everything?,” he wondered.
Mr. Sanjay Kumar also released a mobile app brought by Mr. Ramchander Rao for the forthcoming MLC polls.
