Paddy War: In what could be a surprise statement, the Union minister for food and public distribution Piyush Goyal has made it clear that the Telangana government led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has not sent rice and boiled rice in the current kharif season. He said that despite several reminders the state government did not bother to transport rice to food Corporation of India. In fact the Union government had given five extensions to Telangana government, but there have been no response, he pointed out.
Paddy War
Even while recalling that Telangana had given a written undertaking, stating that it would not supply parboiled rice in future, Union minister informed Rajya Sabha that the state was unable to provide the agreed quantity of rice to the FCI. Speaking during the Question Hour, he also blamed the state government for not properly maintaining the paddy stock records and unnecessarily politicising the rice procurement issue. Not satisfied with his reply, the TRS members staged a walkout from the House.
While stressing that Telangana had assured that it would not offer parboiled rice to the FCI in future, Goyal said “We will procure rice as per the agreement.” He also asked the state to supply the amount of rice which it agreed to. The TRS members, meanwhile, continued their protests in Lok Sabha for the fifth consecutive day. “There are a number of discrepancies in the rice stocks and registers when our teams have gone for a physical verification,” The minister said in Rajya Sabha.
The Union minister Piyush Goyal blamed the state government for not delivering the assured rice to the FCI. “The state government claimed that it had procured 94.53 lakh MTs. But, it has not sent the same. Still, 29 lakh MTs of rice is pending with Telangana,” he mentioned.