TRS MPs disrupt Lok Sabha proceedings over the Centre’s paddy procurement policy

TRS MPs stage a protest against the Central government’s paddy procurement policy during the winter session of Parliament, in New Delhi on November 29.

Taking a que from their party supremo, Members of Parliament belonging to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) created a ruckus in the Lok Sabha on November 29, raising anti-government slogans and waving placards. The Telangana Chief Minister and TRS president K. Chandrashekar Rao had specifically asked the party Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members to confront the Narendra Modi government on the paddy procurement policy being followed by it.

Addressing a meeting of the TRS parliamentary party at Pragathi Bhavan in Hyderabad on November 28, the Telangana Chief Minister had said: “The Centre should come out with a uniform national food grain procurement policy for the entire nation. The parliamentary members will fight until the Centre spells out, in clear and unambiguous terms, what its policy is.”

The TRS has alleged that the Centre’s procurement policy was confusing and arbitrary. It has demanded that the Centre immediately start procuring the paddy that has already arrived at the State’s paddy procuring centres and was getting damaged and has charged the Central government of pursuing an anti-farmer agenda. The party has demanded that the Modi government announce a national procurement policy on the floor of the House. It also wants a clear schedule for the procurement of paddy in both the kharif and rabi seasons.

Led by Nama Nageswara Rao, TRS Members of Parliament seeking justice for Telangana raised anti-government slogans and rushed to the podium after the Speaker Om Birla rejected an adjournment motion moved by them seeking a discussion on the procurement of paddy in the State. They disrupted question hour briefly and insisted that the Speaker take up the problems confronting paddy farmers in Telangana. The Speaker had to adjourn the House for some time.

TRS MPs continued their agitation by holding placards in the Central Hall of Parliament and then protested in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue, located in the Parliament complex.

At the crux of the issue is the Centre’s refusal to pick up any parboiled rice from Telangana while it has also hinted that it will procure a maximum of 60 lakh tonnes of paddy (which translates to around 40 lakh tonnes of rice). Telangana wants the Centre to procure 90 per cent of the entire paddy grown in the kharif season.