The efforts of the State government to persuade Centre to lift the paddy produced in the State in the ongoing rabi suffered a serious setback late on Friday night with the Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution System Piyush Goyal categorically announcing that the government will not buy the produce.
After a hour-long meeting of Ministers and officials from the State in Delhi, Agriculture Minister S. Niranjan Reddy told media persons that the Centre had also not agreed to fix the target for procurement of paddy from Telangana for the two crops during 2021-22. It advised State to appeal to farmers not to grow paddy in the present crop. Quoting Mr. Goyal, Mr. Reddy said it was impossible to tell how much will be procured.
Mr. Reddy said the Centre, however, came close to accepting the State’s claims that paddy was cultivated in kharif of this year over 62 lakh acres. After much dilly dallying and initial refusal to accept the State’s estimates, the Centre said it had used satellite data which showed crop in over 58 lakh acres.
He expressed the disappointment of himself and other Ministers Mohammed Mahmood Ali, E. Dayakar Rao, MPs Nama Nageswara Rao, K.R. Suresh Reddy and B.B. Patil and Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar who participated in the discussions.
Mr. Reddy said the delegation had conveyed to Mr. Goyal the instigation by BJP leaders to farmers to cultivate paddy in rabi. Mr. Goyal assured them that the government will advise BJP leaders not to indulge in it.
The State government had anxiously awaited Friday’s decision of the Centre after hectic consultations with Mr. Goyal and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in New Delhi on Tuesday. The Centre had then assured the government that it will spell its stand in two days.
