BJP leaders find fault with KCR language

Hyderabad: The slugfest over the issue of paddy procurement continued on Tuesday as a consequence of the criticism of the central government by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday at a press conference.

While three MPs of BJP, including Union Minister G Kishan Reddy targeted the TRS in Delhi and found fault with the language used by KCR, the TRS leaders, including Ministers G Jagadish Reddy and other MLAs countered the saffron party leaders.

The state BJP president Bandi Sanjay objected to the language used by CM KCR against Union Minister G Kishan Reddy. "KCR has lost his mental balance and is talking irresponsibly against Kishan Reddy. He should be ashamed of using such a language while being in such a high position. It appears he is giving vent to his frustration," he said. Sanjay felt that the cabinet meeting was held only to discuss how and what abuses they should use against leaders of other parties. He said the fact is that no one was consuming the boiled rice and hence the Centre said it would not buy. Aware of this, KCR was playing politics, he alleged.

Kishan Reddy said the Centre never said that it would not buy paddy but for everything there are certain norms and rules and within that parameters paddy is purchased.

MP D Arvind alleged that the TRS leaders were smuggling low-quality rice from Karnataka and selling it to FCI. Even after repeated suggestions from the Centre, the TRS government did not stop the parboiled rice production for the last four years, he alleged.

Parliamentary Party leader K Keshava Rao reiterated that the Centre has no procurement policy on paddy and was neglecting the interests of farmers of Telangana. He said the Centre says it will procure only 40 lakh metric tonnes of rice. Telangana can give a crore tonne of paddy, which will be useful for the entire country. The intention of TRS is not to stall the Parliament but it wants to bring the issue to the notice of the people, he said.