Hyderabad: Kishan Reddy urges farmers to support agri laws

Hyderabad: Union Minister G Kishan Reddy wanted to know why the fruits and flowers imported from other countries could be sold in Hyderabad, but the sweet lemon grown by farmers in Nalgonda and in Anantapur was being due to low price?

Addressing the media on Monday, the Union Minister said the new agricultural laws have been brought out by the Centre only empower the farmers and to ensure that they get multiple platforms to sell their agricultural products.

He said that BJP has taken up a countrywide campaign to reach out to the farmers to create awareness among them about the new agricultural laws. He said that a decision to this effect has been taken against the backdrop of misleading propaganda launched by some political parties in the wake of farmers from Punjab protesting at Delhi borders.

Kishan Reddy asked farmers neither listen to BJP nor the other political parties. He asked them to go through on their own the laws available on the public domain and discuss among them and come out with any suggestions or changes they wanted to incorporate in the new agriculture laws enacted by the Centre.

The Union Minister stated that about 64 per cent of the agriculture produce was being sold outside the agricultural markets. A farmer in Punjab who brings his agriculture produce valued Rs 7,000 to the market has to shell out Rs 700 as market cess or fee, he added.

He asked the opposition parties not to jeopardise the lives of farmers to settle the political scores against the BJP and the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. He said that "this situation has to change and farmers cannot be left at the mercy of mandi, market, middlemen and private traders."

The Union Minister said that the ITC Company in Telangana entered into an agreement with farmers for the cultivation of seeds in hundreds of acres under Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's Assembly constituency under the State laws, he added.

Kishan Reddy stated that the bandh that took place in Telangana in the name of farmers bandh was actually a "Sarkari Bandh", where buses were stopped from plying, offices and shops were forcibly closed. "I want to ask the Telangana DGP that the BJP leaders were put under house arrest when the party gave a call for bandh or to stage a peaceful protest. Then why was it that Minister KT Rama Rao, MLC K Kavitha and other ministers were not arrested during the Bharat Bandh," he questioned?