Slow procurement of paddy is the reason for damage and loss due to unexpected rains, said BRS

BRS leader T. Harish Rao talking to a farmer at a paddy procurement center in Baddipadaga village of Nangunur mandal in Siddipet district on Sunday.

HYDERABAD

Senior Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and former Minister T. Harish Rao criticized the State government for its failure to procure more paddy in a month so far, despite the government’s long claims of releasing sufficient quantity of paddy. shopping centers.

Speaking after visiting the paddy procurement center at Baddipadaga of Nangunur mandal in Siddipet district on Sunday, he wanted to know why the procurement activity is slow even though farmers have lost their produce due to damage to both procurement centres, market yards and harvesting fields in the early rains.

In addition, farmers are forced to guard their produce in the harvest areas as monkeys and other animals destroy the standing and harvested crops, said Mr. Rao, adding that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy got the support of the farming community before the elections. , but after assuming the position of Chief Minister, he did not have time to find out from the farmers if they are getting the funding.

Even the minister did not have time to visit the procurement centers and find out the problems of the farmers by discarding their produce. Due to the slow pace of procurement, farmers are forced to resort to hard selling of their produce and sell paddy for as low as R1,800 per quintal. Likewise, cotton and maize farmers were also not receiving support prices.

At a separate press conference in Hyderabad, party leader A. Rakesh Reddy said that of the 7,521 procurement centers planned for paddy, only 4,598 have been opened for naming so far as the procurement was a month after the start of the work. Cotton farmers were struggling to get even R5,000 per quintal as the Cotton Corporation of India failed to open buying centers.

Separately, former Minister and Suryapet MLA G. Jagadish Reddy said that while cotton farmers in Telangana were not getting even the support price of Rs 7,521 per unit, farmers in Gujarat were being given Rs 8,000 per cent. He criticized the Chief Minister for not holding even one meeting to review cotton and paddy, the two major crops of the kharif season, procurement so far.