Hyderabad, May 25 (PTI) Slamming the Congress government for the alleged tardy pace of crop procurement in the state, the BJP in Telangana on Monday initiated an agriculture market yard visit in the state to mount pressure on the government for expeditious purchases from farmers.
As part of a three-day programme to visit the procurement centres, a team of BJP MPs and MLAs, led by state party president N Ramchander Rao, inspected agriculture market yards in Vikarabad district and interacted with farmers.
Rao alleged that the state government neglected crop purchases, though the BJP’s Kisan Morcha had urged the state Agriculture Minister two months ago to complete the process promptly.
“Now, we see that heaps of grains are lying (without being purchased) in every procurement centre. Farmers have been waiting for 15days. They are facing difficulties as gunny bags and tarpaulins (to cover the produce in case of rain) are not available adequately,” he told reporters.
In view of the visit of the BJP leaders, the administration on Sunday night and Monday morning filled up the farmers’ produce in bags and carried them to mills in a hurried manner. This is nothing but deceiving the farmers, he alleged.
He demanded that the government procure the produce from farmers till the “last grain” as promised.
Meanwhile, state Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said in a post on X that the government has so far procured 51 lakh tons of paddy from farmers and made payments.
The government has set up 8,575 paddy procurement centres in the state. “Rs 45,000 crore has been paid to paddy farmers this year alone,” he said.
Observing that as many as 21 crore gunny bags have been made available on the ground, he said there is no shortage of the bags. PTI SJR SJR ADB
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