Telangana TRS Leaders: Statewide Protests On December 20 To Expose Centre's Discrimination

The ruling TRS party has decided to intensify its fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party and is going to hold a statewide agitation on December 20.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who addressed a meeting with the party leaders in Telangana Bhavan on Friday told them to hold dharnas, burn effigies of the BJP leaders in the state as the centre is refusing to purchase paddy from Telangana.

Briefing the media persons after the meeting, state agriculture minister S Niranjan Reddy said that, "At the same time, KCR has decided that we should continue to mount pressure on the centre on the paddy purchase. A delegation of six cabinet ministers and 17 MPs would be leaving for New Delhi on Saturday to take up the paddy procurement issue with the Centre."

A party delegation will leave for Delhi on Saturday and meet Union Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal to explain the current situation in Telangana and request the centre to clarify its stand on procurement of Kharif rice from the state. The TRS is also contemplating launching a one crore signature campaign against the BJP government. 

He further stated that the paddy production in the state would be nearly 13 million tonnes as it is being cultivated in around 62 lakh acres during the Kharif season. 

Niranjan Reddy said that the Food Corporation of India had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to purchase 40 lakh tonnes of rice.

The paddy output is expected to be 1.3 crore tonnes in the Kharif season and the centre assured to procure only 60 lakh tonnes of paddy (40 lakh tonnes of rice). So, he questioned what to do with the remaining paddy produced in the state.

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