Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MPs in the Lok Sabha on Monday moved a notice for privilege motion against Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal.
The TRS MPs were led by Chevella MP Dr Ranjith Reddy, alleging that Goyal was misleading the Parliament with regards to exports of par-boiled rice to other countries.
The Chevella MP put up a tweet regarding the notice of privilege motion and said, “Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, has been given a privilege notice by the Lok Sabha Speaker for misleading the people and Parliament over the purchase of paddy.”
In a letter to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, TRS MPs including Prabhakar Reddy, Venkatesh Netha, Maine Srinivas Reddy, Nama Nageswara Rao, BB Patil, Kavitha Malothu, and Ranjith Reddy mentioned that the Union minister while answering questions in the Rajaya Sabha on April 1 said, “India cannot export boiled rice under WTO restrictions and the state government must fend for themselves.”
The TRS MPs said that this was Goyal’s response to a suggestion made by a member who said that three lakh tons of parboiled rice was lying with the states and suggested that it could be exported to other countries to assist the farmers in India.
The TRS MPs said that the minister’s response to the suggestion was misleading.
They further mentioned that India was exporting millions of tonnes of parboiled rice to foreign countries as displayed on the government’s website. This was tantamount to misleading the nation and raising the issue of the privilege of the Parliament, they remarked.
The paddy procurement issue
Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao had demanded that the Centre should buy the entire Yasangi crop produced in the state on the lines of procurement in Punjab and Haryana.
He had said that a protest will be held in Delhi on April 2 against the Central government over the issue.
Last year, a delegation of Ministers from the State had even met union Ministers to make a clear announcement on paddy procurement, including the quantity. However, there has been no amicable solution obtained to the problem yet.
(with inputs from ANI)
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