Pay MSP for chilli from March 2, demands TDP

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) senior leader D. Sitakka welcoming the Centre’s decision of announcing a minimum support price for chilli, has demanded the Government of implementing it with retrospective effect from March 2.

Ms. Sitakka said that they demand a payment of ₹ 8,000 per quintal plus ₹ 2,000 as handling charge. As most the farmers had already disposed off their stocks, now the traders would benefit from the Centre’s decision, she pointed out. The Government should implement it from March 2 extending the benefit to those who had sold their produce then.

The State Government had failed to handle the issue properly and did not come up with market intervention fund as promised. “Mr. KCR and his ministers are engaged in just bragging and doing nothing. The farmers were driven to desperation,” she said.

Ms. Sitakka said that the State Government had made tall claims of building godowns, but miserably failed to allocate enough space for farmers leading to current turmoil. Those existing cold storages were hijacked by the traders and farmers’ requests were turned down.

The State Government should construct enough number of godowns and cold storages at least one or two in each mandal, he opined.

Another leader Gandra Satyanarayana Rao sought to know why the State Government turned the markets into police stations. If the farmers asked for reasonable price, they were being harassed by foisting false cases. The farmers were being branded as rowdy elements, he observed.