Hyderabad, Nov 30 Telangana state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday said the state government will have to procure paddy during the coming Rabi season.
A day after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced that the government will not set up procurement centres in view of the Centre's decision not to lift the paddy from the state, BJP leader said the state government will have to procure the paddy in Rabi like it is procuring paddy during current Kharif season.
Citing the Centre's refusal to procure parboiled rice from the state, the chief minister had announced on Monday that the state will not procure paddy from farmers.
"You will have to procure paddy in the coming season. We will see how you will not set up procurement centres," Sanjay challenged the chief minister.
KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known, has been targeting Sanjay for what he calls provoking farmers to go for paddy cultivation despite the Centre making it clear that it will not buy parboiled rice.
Sanjay said the BJP will take the responsibility of procurement of raw rice. Disputing KCR's claim that only parboiled rice is produced in Telangana during Rabi, he alleged that the state government is not supplying five types of seeds available to grow raw rice.
The BJP leader reminded the chief minister of his repeated statement that the state will procure every grain produced in the state and wondered why he was going back on his word.
Sanjay also alleged that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leaders colluded with rice millers and resorted to irregularities in rice procurement. He claimed that it has come to light that they were recycling old rice and giving it to the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
The BJP leader also claimed FCI is conducting acid test to find out if rice is old or new.
"TRS leaders are worried that they will be exposed and hence they are staging dharnas," he said.
The BJP leader took strong exception to the language used by the chief minister against union minister G. Kishan Reddy and warned that if BJP leaders start responding in the same way, he would not be able to bear it.
On KCR branding BJP as the killer of 750 farmers, Sanjay alleged that TRS was responsible for deaths of several farmers, students and unemployed youth in the state.
Meanwhile, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief A. Revanth Reddy alleged that TRS and BJP both were cheating the farmers. He said both the parties were playing games on the issue of paddy procurement.
The Congress leader said if the Centre can't procure paddy, the state government should come forward and procure it.
"When the state government is claiming that it is spending thousands of crores for farmers, why can't it procure paddy from them," he asked.
Revanth Reddy said if the paddy was not procured what is the use of irrigation projects built by spending thousands of crores and the Rythu Bandhu scheme.
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