Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao has urged the Center to form a ‘national food grains procurement policy’ to ensure a uniform procurement of agricultural produce from across the country.
Speaking at the TRS Parliamentary Party (TRSPP) meeting held here in Pragati Bhavan on Sunday, KCR said that the current procurement rules were unclear and confusing and that they have an adverse effect on the agricultural sector in India. The chief minister reiterated his commitment to the protection of farmers’ interest in Telangana.
KCR urged Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MPs to raise the issue in the Parliament, in order to pressurise the centre. He further urged the MPs to question the centre over its ever-changing stance on the cultivation of paddy during the monsoon season. It is to be noted that the centre would procure only 60 lakh tonnes of paddy from the state, while it was supposed to purchase 90 lakh tonnes.
The TRSPP expressed its displeasure over the centre’s procurement policy calling it “dual and illogical”.
The Union government had recently said that it would not procure boiled rice produced by Telangana state, which has led to certain uneasiness between the two.