Telangana govt to protest against Centre's paddy procurement policy today

To mark a protest against the Centre's discriminatory paddy procurement policy, Telangana Government has announced to stage Dharna in Delhi on Monday morning.

Telangana Government elected representatives, TRS party MPs, MLCs, MLAs and elected representatives of urban and rural local bodies will join the protest against the Union Government.

The Telangana Government will sit on a day-long dharna on April 11 in Delhi to stage a protest against the Union government's discriminatory paddy procurement policy, which is impacting 61 lakh farmers and their families.

The venue for the protest, Telangana Bhavan is being set up for the massive protest in Delhi and the ruling party in Telangana claims that the Centre is not procuring paddy from the Telangana farmers.

Recently, the TRS workers had blocked four National Highways in Telangana to press their demand for a "uniform" procurement policy in the country. The party decided to protest in Delhi in their bid to raise the issue at the national level.

Addressing the media on Sunday, TRS MLC K Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, said that the food security of the country will be endangered if there is no 'uniform procurement' policy by the Centre.

On March 24, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal assured farmers of Telangana that there is absolutely no discrimination among the farmers from different states and added that some politicians in Telangana are misleading the farmers in the state.

The Telangana government has been pressing the Centre for the procurement of the entire paddy produced in the state. 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.