Harish angry over Centre’s attitude

Hyderabad: State government on Tuesday expressed anger at the Union government for not responding to the request for red gram procurement in additional quantity.

Marketing minister T Harish Rao recently shot off a letter to Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan, requesting him to increase the procurement of red gram to one lakh tonnes from the farmers. He told the Union Minister that there was increase in production of red gram because of favourable seasonal conditions.

Harish Rao held a meeting with Agriculture Minister P Srinivas Reddy and Marketing Department officials and reviewed the situation. The meeting voiced displeasure over the Centre’s attitude. The Minister expressed his anger at the Union government not responding to the State government’s request.

The Centre, he said, had ordered procurement of 75,000 tonnes of red gram. With increase in yield, the price for the produce had gone down, resulting in farmers being deprived of good price for their produce.