Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief and Chief Minster K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday directed his party MPs to demand the ‘Uniform National Foodgrain Procurement Policy’ during the winter session of Parliament beginning November 29.
The TRS chief said due to the central government’s unclear and often confusing policies, the farming community in Telangana and agriculture sector in the country was facing problems.
Rao demanded that the Centre atleast now declare Nation’s Comprehensive Foodgrains Procurement policy, which should be a single policy at national level to be implemented in all states uniformly, to procure the foodgrains, an official release said.
KCR, who chaired the TRS Parliamentary Board meeting here reiterated that the party is committed to protecting the interests of Telangana’s farmers and the agri sector and for this, they would exert pressure on the Centre in Parliament.
Urging the Centre to abandon its dual and illogical policy on the procurement of paddy in Telangana, Rao advised the TRS Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members to raise the matter in both the Houses.
The party expressed its unhappiness over the Centre not taking a clear stand on the procurement despite a delegation of the state Ministers, a team of officials headed by the Chief Secretary meeting union Minister Piyush Goyal and other central officials, the release said.
KCR asked the MPs to target the Centre over its stand on procurement of paddy from Telangana. While the Centre said it would only procure 60 lakh tonnes of paddy, it is expected to procure 90 lakh MT.
Rao had earlier demanded that the Centre convey the annual target for paddy procurement from Telangana.
He also staged a dharna here recently over the issue. It was held against the backdrop of a war of words between the ruling party and BJP over the matter and following clashes between the activists of the two parties during state BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s visit to procurement centres last week.
Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy, TRS Party leader in Rajya Sabha K Keshav Rao, party’s Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs and other public representatives participated in the meeting along with Government’s Chief Advisor Rajiv Sharma, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and other officials.