Telangana Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy seeks NRIs' support for farmers' protests
Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy
Hyderabad: Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy has asked the NRIs who interacted with him on virtual mode on Monday, "to submit representation at the Indian Embassies to express their solidarity with farmers protests in India."
The Minister responded to various questions asked by the NRIs on the ongoing farmers' protest in Delhi. He found fault with the Centre for not including Minimum Support Price in the new agricultural laws and for not coming forward to announce bonus to encourage the cultivation of alternative crops.
Niranjan Reddy clarified that the procurement and sale of agricultural products are being carried out through e-NAM freely. The Agriculture Minister said that the farmers from Punjab and Haryana have responded early and are ahead of others.
The Minister said that it was misnomer to think that farmers who have not gone to Delhi to join the protests were welcoming the new agriculture acts. Alleging that the new laws were meant to handover the essential commodities to the hands of corporates, he charged the Centre for selling the public sector undertakings like birthday cakes.
He also questioned Centre over waiver of Rs 6.5 lakh crore corporate loans, but not extending the same help to the agriculture sector. He expressed doubts as to how without the support of the government, farmers could benefit from the free market since they can not specify a price to their agriculture produce.
Over 85 NRIs including, TRS USA Advisory Board chairman Mahesh Tanner, Conveners Chandu Talla, Vengal Jalagam, Secretary Aravind Takkllapalli and several others appreciated the Minister for holding the meeting with them. The Minister later advised Kalyana Chakravarthi from Boston to submit representations at the Indian Embassy to express their solidarity with the protesting farmers.
Responding to Chandu Talla, the Minister said that the TRS government was focusing on encouraging food processing industry to bring value addition and to increase the farmers' income.