Paddy War: Even as the ruling Telangana Rastra Samiti (TRS) is making a big issue out of paddy procurement and has declared a war against the Union government for not procuring the paddy from Telangana, we have the state Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan making a visit to procurement centres. What does this signify? Is she checking the centres? Will this lead to new controversy?
Paddy War
Interestingly, the Governor seems to have expressed her satisfaction over the functioning of the procurement centres. The Governor on Wednesday visited a couple of paddy procurement centres in Nalgonda district. The visit came amid an on-going war of words between ruling TRS and BJP and the state government seeking an annual target for paddy procurement in the state from the Union government. Dr Tamilisai visited paddy procurement centres at Duppalapally and Arjalabavi villages and interacted with the farmers on procurement procedure, progress and facilities, a Raj Bhavan press communique said.
She asked the officials about the facilities provided for the farmers and the procedure being followed for the procurement and asked about the progress in the procurement and other aspects related to the procurement. The Governor talked to the farmers and found out about the yield of their crops and the availability of the bags for packing. The officials then explained to the Governor about the progress in the procurement process and the facilities provided for the farmers at the IKP procurement centres.
Her visit takes prominence because the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his minister have sat on Maha Dharna in Hyderabad against the centre’s policy of not procuring paddy from the state. The war between state and centre continued with the TRS MPs protesting in both the Houses of the Parliament and now have decided to boycott the Parliament for entire winter season.
With paddy procurement being a sensitive issue, was it necessary for the Governor to involve in it? Looking at the sequence of events that led to Dr Tamilisai’s visit to procurement centres, it looks like it was to snub KCR and his government who have launched an attack on Union government. The silence of the CM is also something that is keeping everyone guessing. It is being understood that KCR might indirectly mention of the Governor’s visit very soon!