HYDERABAD: BJP State President B Sanjay Kumar appealed to the farmers of Telangana on Saturday to be wary of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s conspiracy over paddy procurement. He said the CM has refused to open paddy procurement centres in the State this rabi season, only to help the millers and middlemen reap benefits, by resorting to distress sale of paddy. The distress sale would cause a loss of anywhere between Rs 300 to Rs 660 per quintal, as against the minimum support price of Rs 1,960 per quintal on fine grain variety.
In an open letter to the farmers on Saturday, he stated that the CM, who knew very well that the farmers would revolt if paddy procurement centres weren’t opened, was trying to blame the Centre while protecting the TRS leaders who were hand-in-glove with the ring of millers. The millers have promised to pay TRS leaders Rs 100 as commission on every quintal of paddy. He further said that he had information about the State government opening procurement centres after all the paddy is sold to middlemen by farmers within 20 days, after hundreds of crores would have changed hands. “When 1,700 rice mills out of 2,700 in the State were ready to process raw rice, he asked, what problem did the CM have in procuring paddy.
He said that the Centre has spent Rs 97,575 crore for procuring paddy from Telangana in the last seven years.