Farmers Movement Archive

Get ready for long battle, KTR warns Central govt.

TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao has threatened the Central government with a long agitation against the three farm laws stating that they would reach out to every farmer to explain how the Central government was compromising farmers’ interests to favour the corporates. Accusing the BJP government of being undemocratic, he said on Tuesday that it was not willing to listen to the farmers and blindly toeing the line of corporates. He was speaking at a rasta roko at Burugula near Shadnagar in support of the Bharat Bandh called by the farmers’ organisations against the new farm bills. “The Central government passed the Bills using its brute majority without discussing with the Opposition parties and farmers’ organisations and in Rajya Sabha it did not even agree for voting despite lacking majority. The BJP lacks the democratic spirit,” he claimed. Continuing his virulent attack on the new laws, he asked why the Central government was shying away from guaranteeing the MSP in the Bill itself, which the farmers want. When 85% of farmers in the country are small and marginal, their only guard against exploitation is the MSP, which the government is not willing to consider, he said. “Whom do they want to convince that the laws are good for farmers,” he asked. He reminded that it was not just farmers’ loss but also the middle class as the prices of essential commodities are bound to spiral in the absence of government control. “Corporates will buy stock, create artificial shortage and then make people pay the price they want,” he said. On buying the fine variety paddy in Telangana, he alleged that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) was threatening the Telangana government with stopping procurement if the government announced a bonus to farmers. Mr. KTR said it was not a big issue to spend Rs. 1,000 crore to support farmers who have grown fine variety paddy but it was worried about the procurement which the FCI has threatened to stop if the bonus was announced in addition to the MSP. Meanwhile, Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao with some MLAs staged a rasta roko near Kazipet on the Hyderabad-Warangal highway while Bhupalpally MLA Gandra Venkatraramana Reddy sat on a dharna at Bhupalpally bus depot. In Nizamabad, MLC Kavitha along with MLA Gampa Goverdhan staged a rasto roko.

The Hindu

2020-12-09

Hyderabad,TELANGANA