KCR conspiring to make ryots sell paddy below MSP: Bandi Sanjay Kumar

Hyderabad: State BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Saturday alleged that the TRS government's politicisation of the paddy procurement issue smacks of a large scale conspiracy to help the middlemen make hundreds of crore and diverting the anger of the farmers towards the Centre. In an open letter to the farming community in the State, Sanjay said by closing down the paddy procurement centres during Yasangi (Rabi) season, the Telangana government is creating an inevitable situation for the farmers to sell their produce to middlemen at a very lower rate than the minimum support price (MSP).

"It is a conspiracy hatched by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao in collusion with the rice millers' mafia to deny MSP to farmers, so that the bigwigs in the ruling party mint millions of rupees in the form of commission," he alleged. The BJP president said since the farmers would question the government for not purchasing the paddy, the TRS leaders were hitting the roads to divert the farmers' anger towards the Centre. He said the Centre would pay an MSP of Rs 1,960 for a quintal of paddy during the Rabi season.

The farmers have already started harvesting the crop and in several districts like Nalgonda, Khammam and Warangal, the farmers have started bringing their produce to the market. Since the State government has not opened the IKP centres (meant for procurement of agriculture produce), the farmers are forced to go to millers. Taking advantage of the farmers' helplessness, the millers are paying only around Rs 1,300 to Rs 1,660 per quintal of paddy, which is much less than the MSP.

"Since the farmers have to clear their debts and meet their family requirements, they are compelled to sell their produce at lesser rate offered by brokers, thereby suffering a loss of Rs 300 to Rs 600 per quintal," he added. Sanjay said this season, paddy was cultivated in 35 lakh acres in Telangana, which is expected to yield a quantity of nearly 60 lakh tonnes.