Alleging that the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is indulging in the blame game over the issue of procurement of paddy, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday asked Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to resign if he wasn't able to address the concerns of the farmers in the state.
The BJP held a protest at the "Dharna Chowk" in Hyderabad. The TRS had also held a protest in the national capital on Monday.
Telangana BJP leader P Sudhakar Reddy, while speaking to ANI, said, "The TRS government instead of helping the farmers has started the blame game against the Centre. He should help the farmer and in case he cannot, he should quit on moral grounds."
Reddy further added, "The Telangana CM is doing all this (protest) for vote bank politics and it is very disheartening to see the plight of the farmers."
The BJP leader further added that the state should procure paddy. The Central government is ready to procure paddy from the state, he added.
"The BJP will fight in the state for the people and the farmers. The government said that they will give free urea but they did not give it. Since the BJP has won the Huzurabad Assembly bypoll, the TRS has started the blame game. So we demand CM KCR to quit or come to the rescue of the farmers," Reddy said.
Meanwhile, Telangana leaders on Monday staged a day-long protest in Delhi against the 'discriminatory' paddy procurement policy of the Central government. It is impacting 61 lakh farmers and their families, alleged the TRS.
During the protest in Delhi, numerous posters were put up by the BJP leaders near the protest site (Telangana Bhavan), asking KCR to step down.
Recently, the TRS workers had blocked four National Highways in Telangana to press their demand for a "uniform" procurement policy in the country. The party decided to protest in Delhi in their bid to raise the issue at the national level.
Addressing the media on Sunday, TRS MLC K Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, said that the food security of the country will be endangered if there is no 'uniform procurement' policy by the Centre.
On March 24, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal assured farmers of Telangana that there is absolutely no discrimination among the farmers from different states and added that some politicians in Telangana are misleading the farmers in the state.
The Telangana government has been pressing the Centre for the procurement of the entire paddy produced in the state. Last year, a delegation of Ministers from the state had even met union Ministers to make a clear announcement on paddy procurement, including the quantity.
( With inputs from ANI )
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