Telangana Farmers Face Crisis as Paddy Procurement Stalls

Hyderabad: Telangana’s paddy procurement crisis deepened on Monday as BRS deputy floor leader T Harish Rao threatened statewide agitation unless the government speeds up purchases within two days. Speaking after inspecting the Enasanpally purchase centre, Harish Rao said farmers have never faced such hardships under any previous regime. He criticised the Congress administration for promising to buy 90 lakh tonnes of paddy and then scaling the target down to 70 lakh tonnes despite a record harvest of 1.4 crore tonnes. The former minister alleged that mill owners are exploiting the situation by demanding minimum 43 kg per bag, leading to a loss of 150 kg per acre for farmers. He said officials are directing aggrieved farmers to negotiate directly with millers instead of intervening. Harish Rao reminded the government that former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had once staged a dharna in Delhi to force the Centre to resume procurement. He challenged Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to show similar resolve rather than shifting blame. With procurement still at only one-third of the target and stocks lying exposed to rain and heat, the BRS leader warned that further delay could trigger massive farmer unrest across the state.