The ruling TRS will organise dharnas in the headquarters of all Assembly constituencies on Friday demanding the BJP-led Central government to come clean on its demand to withdraw cess on petrol and diesel to pave way for reduction of their prices and buy entire quantity of paddy produced in Telangana, like in Punjab.
This is the second time the TRS will be taking to streets as a ruling party after coming to power in 2014. The last time the party organised such protests was in the initial days of State formation when seven mandals of Khammam, including the lower Sileru project, were merged with Andhra Pradesh.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao warned that the TRS will continue to mount pressure on Centre till it concedes the demand to buy paddy in the State. As a party wedded to the well-being of people anywhere in the country, it will carry on struggle demanding abolition of cess on fuel, he said.
Reiterating his appeal to farmers to restrain from sowing paddy in the ensuing rabi till December-end, which is the flexibility period for taking up sowings, he said the government will not impose any restrictions on those who wanted to grow paddy seed if they had tie ups with seed companies, those who had buyback arrangement with rice millers and those who wanted rice for self consumption.
The farmers could take up sowings as was their wont if the Centre agreed to lift stocks but he was not confident.
Mr. Rao was livid with BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar for calling him anti-national because he raised the issue of China making inroads into Arunachal Pradesh, and asked if the same can be applied to Meghalaya Governor Satyapal Malik and Mr. Varun Gandhi, both of whom were BJP leaders but supported the agitation of farmers against farm laws enacted by the Centre.
He blamed the BJP for shying away from the demand to buy paddy by denying Telangana government’s claims that the cultivated area was 62 lakh acres. It was the inefficiency of the Centre not to buy three crore tonnes of paddy produced annually in the State. On the other hand, the BJP indulged in political harakiri by stoking communal passions and tensions across international borders, he said.
Mr. Rao appealed to farmers to go for cotton which is fetching them ₹ 8,400 a quintal and other commercial crops like blackgram, greengram, sesamum and mustard, instead of paddy, in view of the Centre’s adamant stand.
He expected labour charges on cotton cultivation to come down in coming years as cotton picking machines that could do the job on a single occasion will flood the market.
