Govt. leaving cotton, paddy farmers at the mercy of traders: BRS

BRS leader G. Jagadish Reddy speaking to the media in Hyderabad on Tuesday, as former MLA R. Ravindra Naik (right) and party leader G. Srinivas Yadav look on.

HYDERABAD

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has alleged that the Congress Government is “playing with the lives of farmers regarding cotton and paddy procurement and has left them at the mercy of traders and millers.”

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, BRS leader and former minister G. Jagadish Reddy accused some government functionaries, particularly ministers, of colluding with traders and millers. The government had failed to make necessary arrangements at many of the procurement centres and a minister from Nalgonda district had threatened officials against procuring paddy from farmers so that it could be purchased by traders at a lower price, he said.

He asked the agriculture and civil supplies ministers to tell people how much cotton and paddy were procured from farmers so far this season.

Both Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and his Cabinet colleagues were using filthy language at political opponents to divert people’s attention from key issues. He sought to know why Mr. Revanth Reddy was resorting to tongue-lashing at former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao when the former would repeatedly say that people of Telangana had already forgotten the latter.

He stated that the attack on authorities in the Kodangal constituency was not the one aimed at them but at the Chief Minister himself. He suggested that intellectuals visit the Kodangal constituency to find out why people were opposing the government’s proposal to establish a mini pharma city there. He said there was no surprise in the government blaming BRS for the attack on the authorities, but the fact was that the BRS had not even called for any protests.

Mr. Revanth Reddy had become the CM by using the support base of the Congress, but is now trying to defame the party by taking “anti-people decisions”. A section of Congress leaders were already speaking privately that Mr. Revanth Reddy was bent upon defaming the Congress and burying its future.