
Hyderabad: The Telangana ministerial delegation, which has been camping in Delhi to get a written assurance from Union food minister Piyush Goyal on paddy procurement, is yet to get a final word from the Centre.
Agriculture minister S Niranjan Reddy on Thursday said: “We have neither come here (Delhi) without any work nor the government is writing love letters. The NDA government, which instead of supporting a progressive government, is creating hurdles for paddy procurement.”
Niranjan Reddy along with other ministers Errabelli Dayakar Rao, G Jagadish Reddy, Vemula Prashanth Reddy and Gangula Kamalakar has been camping in the national capital on the paddy issue. The ministers expressed their unhappiness over the attitude of the Centre and said it was unfortunate that the Centre was acting like a political party and insulting the state government representatives.
The ministers who said they would not leave Delhi unless they get a written order from the Centre also slammed Union tourism minister G Kishan Reddy for not taking any initiative in getting assurance from the Centre. “We are compelled to beg the Centre as procurement and godowns are under the control of the Union government. If the Centre cannot handle the issue, the government could have transferred the powers to the states,” another minister said.
Niranjan Reddy said had the Centre not created problems, paddy production would have reached 90 lakh metric tonnes from 70 lakh MTs. Targeting the Centre, he wondered: “Is it wrong if we implement pro-farmer schemes such as Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima and provide irrigation water and free power to agriculture sector.”
The ministers alleged that the Union government would go to any extent to help corporate firms to get the MoU done on procurement.
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