 "Direct FCI to confirm rice procurement target from state: KCR to Modi")
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the Centre to direct the FCI to confirm the target of rice procurement from the state during ensuing Rabi season, among others.
His letter comes in the backdrop of the continuing war of words between the ruling TRS and BJP over paddy procurement in the state.
Rao alleged that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) was following certain policies which created confusion in the minds of farmers, as well as state governments, like the procurement target not being fixed for the entire year in one go and procurement not keeping pace, though production was increasing year by year.
Due to these policies,it was becoming difficult for states to plan an appropriate cropping pattern and explain the same to farmers, he said.
For instance, though rice production in Telangana during Kharif 2020-21 was 55.75 lakh metric tons (LMT), the procurement was only 32.66 LMT, which is 59 per cent of the production.
This was less than the 78 per cent procured in Kharif 2019-20. Such wide variations in procurement levels does not allow the state to implement a rational cropping pattern, Rao said.
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To clear these confusions and fix the appropriate target for procurement, he had met Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal in September this year and requested that the annual target for procurement be fixed immediately, he said.
Though it has been 50 days since he met the minister, no policy decision had been taken and communicated to him, he said.
In this context, he requested the Centre to direct FCI to complete procurement of the balance 5.00 LMTs rice produced in Rabi 2020-21 and to enhance the target beyond 40 LMTs for rice procurement during the ongoing Kharif 2021-22 to 90 per cent of production as done in Punjab, he said.
Rao also urged that the target of rice procurement from the state during the ensuing Rabi season be confirmed.
Rao's letter to the PM came against the backdrop of a war of words between ruling TRS and BJP over paddy procurement and a clash between the activists of the two parties during state BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar's visit to procurement centres this week.
After a meeting of the TRS Legislature Party on Tuesday, Rao said all state ministers, TRS MPs, MLAs, MLCs and other public representatives would stage a dharna here on Thursday, demanding that the NDA government make clear the paddy procurement target in the state.
This was required as state BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar has asked farmers to take up paddy cultivation during the coming 'yasangi' (summer) season crop, while the Centre appeared to suggest otherwise, he had said.
Farmers should not suffer loss by taking up paddy cultivation in the summer season due to any confusion on the issue, Rao said
If there is no response from the Centre after the dharna, people would understand as to what is their attitude, he had claimed.
Meanwhile, Bandi Sanjay Kumar alleged on Wednesday that the state government did not start procurement of the rainy season crop which made farmers wait at procurement centres since Dasara festival.
"Farmers would not have died of heart attack at procurement centres or committed suicides had the government started procurement properly," he said.
On Rao's comments that BJP faced protests from farmers during his visits to paddy procurement centres, Kumar asked why would farmers carry sticks and eggs which hit the BJP workers.
On Rao's request that the annual target be fixed for procurement, he said a meeting on the summer crop will be held in February.