Hyderabad: TRS to intensify protest against Centre after Ugadi

Hyderabad: TRS has decided to intensify the protest on paddy procurement against the Centre after the Ugadi festival as the leaders are planning a series of protests including lending support to the nationwide strike call given by trade unions on March 28 and 29.

The Ministers S Niranjan Reddy, V Prashanth Reddy, G Kamalakar and P Ajay who visited New Delhi to meet the Union Food and Civil Supplies Minister Piyush Goyal alleged that the latter insulted farmers of Telangana.

The Ministers gave an ultimatum to the Centre on paddy procurement issue. They said that they would wait till the Ugadi festival and if the Centre fails to bring a national policy on the procurement of food grains, they would intensify the protest. "We will take up agitations and protests would be staged across the State, if the Centre did not consider the State government's appeal to procure the entire paddy produced in the Rabi season," said Niranjan Reddy in a press conference on Saturday.

The Minister said that till April 1, all the gram panchayats and other local bodies would pass resolutions appealing to the Centre to procure the paddy and the same would be presented to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Similarly, TRS activists would also extend support to the strike called by different organisations on March 28 and 29, he said, adding the action plan for agitations and protests would be finalised depending on the Centre's response to the State government's appeals.

Taking serious exception to Union Minister Piyush Goyal's comments on asking the Telangana government to get people habituated to consuming broken rice, the Agriculture Minister said it amounted to insulting the Telangana people. "This arrogance of the BJP-led government would not last long. We shall try hard to pull down the BJP from power. We have confidence in the system that our issues will be addressed," said Niranjan Reddy, adding they would not rest until the Minister tender unconditional apology to the farmers of Telangana for the inconvenience caused to them.

Prashanth Reddy demanded that the Union Minister Piyush Goyal withdraw his comments and apologise to the Telangana people. Lashing out at BJP State president Bandi Sanjay for misleading the farmers, the Minister challenged him to exert pressure on the Centre to procure paddy from Telangana. G Kamalakar said he had met the Union Minister five times regarding the paddy procurement issue. Despite writing 16 letters to the Centre on the issue, there was no response, he said.