Warangal: Protest spills on street against GST on milk

Warangal: Ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party leaders took to streets on Wednesday, in protest of the BJP-led Central Government's decision to impose Goods and Services Tax (GST) on packaged milk and other dairy products. The protest was in tune with the TRS working president KT Rama Rao's statewide call.

Speaking at a protest in Wardhannapet, TRS Warangal district president and local MLA Aroori Ramesh accused the Centre of making life miserable for the common man, especially the farmers. "Already, the prices of essential commodities have gone up due to the Centre's anti-people policies. Now, the Centre imposed GST on milk and milk products. The TRS condemns the anti-people policies of the Centre and will continue to resist till a rollback is announced," Ramesh said. He said that the protests would continue till the Centre goes back on its decision to impose GST on dairy products. He called upon people to raise a revolt against the BJP for its anti-people policies. "The misery will end only when the people dethrone BJP in the next elections," Ramesh said.

Later, speaking to media persons in Hanumakonda, Aroori Ramesh criticised the Centre for not extending its helping hand to Telangana even though the State had incurred huge losses due to recent floods. The Centre needs to be fair towards Telangana instead of being biased, he said, demanding the fulfillment of assurances given under the AP Reorganisation Act-2014.

Narsampet MLA Peddi Sudarshan Reddy said that due to Centre's indifferent approach, rice millers have incurred loss to the tune of crores of rupees as lakhs of tonnes of paddy was damaged. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao kept his promise by purchasing the entire paddy produced by the farmers in the State, but the Centre has been continuing its biased approach by not procuring the crop, Reddy said.