All set for farmers dharnas from tomorrow: Gangula Kamalakar
BC Welfare Minister G Kamalakar addressing a press conference in Karimnagar on Wednesday
KARIMNAGAR BC Welfare and Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar said that all arrangements were made to hold farmers dharnas in Karimnagar district on Friday. After holding a preparatory meeting with district constituency MLAs and in-charges here on Wednesday, the Minister spoke with the media. He called on the TRS rank and file and farmers to hold dharnas in their respective areas against the Central government's anti-farmer attitude. "Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has introduced pro-farmer policies like 24-hour free electricity, increasing cultivation, Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima.
But the Central government is conspiring against the State when Telangana is just emerging from financial woes," he alleged. Protests would continue till the Central government denounce its tyrannical injustices, he stated. Kamalakar alleged that BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Union Minister Kishan Reddy were giving contradictory statements. He said that Babasaheb Ambedkar had framed agricultural laws and gave the responsibility of buying crops to the Centre. No State has the power to decide the minimum support price, the power to set up an agency like FCI to buy and store and export agricultural products, he reminded.
'The State does not have the power to store or export even hundreds of kilos of rice. The government has only the power to provide water, electricity and investment.' He reminded that the Centre had encouraged paddy cultivation in the past when there was levy system. The Minister informed that he met Union Minister Piyush Goyal along with MAUD Minister KT Rama Rao and asked him to procure 50 lakh metric tonnes of paddy.
But the Union Minister said that they will take 20 lakh tonnes of paddy only from the State. Kamalakar gave a call to farmers to unite and fight against the Central government's policies. MLAs Rasamai Balakishan and Sunke Ravishankar, MLC Naradasu Laxman Rao, TRS senior leader Peddireddy and others were present.