Hyderabad: All set for paddy war at dharna chowk
Ministers T Harish Rao, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Jogu Ramanna and others inspecting the dharna chowk ahead of TRS Maha Dharna at Indira Park in Hyderabad. Photo: Adula Krishna
Hyderabad: After a gap of seven years, the dharna chowk is going to witness a scurry of activity on Thursday for the second time within a week claiming to be waging a paddy war against the Centre.
This time, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao would also participate in the 'Maha Dharna'. Speaker after speaker will lash out at the Centre for showing step-motherly treatment towards the State. They will reiterate that the Government would go to any extent and chase the government till it agrees to buy the entire crop as in the case of Punjab.
According to Finance Minister T Harish Rao, the two-hour long Maha Dharna between 11 am and 2 pm is aimed at making the Union Government realise the need to buy paddy during kharif and agree to buy the rabi crop as well. "The government is for the farmers whether in power or in opposition," he said.
After the dharna, a delegation of the party leaders will go to Raj Bhavan and submit a memorandum to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan requesting her to direct the Centre to procure the entire crop in Telangana.
Harish Rao further said that this dharna was against the injustice to the people and for lakhs of farmers. The protest is against the Centre's rigidness on procurement of paddy and to bring pressure on the Centre to change its stand.
The Centre, he said, was yet to buy 5 lakh tonnes of rabi crop of 2020-2021 and now a bumper crop of kharif was there lying in the market yards.
He said the BJP was politicising the farmers' issue. "How can the Central Government have different procurement policies for different States," he asked.
The minister said TRS would be holding a peaceful protest and in a democratic manner. He said it had obtained all the permissions.
In the meantime, the Left parties feel that these dharna's were not just for paddy purchase but have greater political connotations. They however, expressed their happiness that the State Government had realised the importance of protests and dharna chowk. It had never allowed the opposition to hold protests there and the police, which gives permission for huge meetings of the ruling party, does not extend similar courtesy to the opposition, they rued.