'You can't mess with farmers': Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao warns PM Modi on Centre's paddy procurement policy

Image courtesy: ANI

New Delhi: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) on Monday (April 11) warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a rally, saying that farmers are not beggars.

Asking PM Modi to frame a new agriculture policy, KCR said, "Is growing paddy Telangana farmers' fault?...I warn PM Modi that you can't mess with farmers. Indian history is a testament that wherever farmers cried, the government loses power."

#WATCH | Is growing paddy Telangana farmers' fault?...I warn PM Modi that you can't mess with farmers. Indian history is a testament that wherever farmers cried, govt loses power.Nobody is permanent...When in power,don't treat farmers unfairly: Telangana CM KCR at dharna, Delhi pic.twitter.com/uqCzSdG3Bl

— ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2022

Addressing a dharna at Telangana Bhavan, Telangana CM further said, "Nobody is permanent...When in power, don't treat farmers unfairly." The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is staging a protest in New Delhi, demanding the imposition of a `one nation-one foodgrain procurement policy`.

Meanwhile, the BJP has put numerous posters near the protest site asking KCR to step down. A poster of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Telangana state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar mentions, "KCR, what is your problem in procuring rice. Why this dharna? Is it for politics or for farmers? Buy rice if you can, else step down."

A number of posters from both parties have decked up in and around Telangana Bhawan in New Delhi.The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), making its demand for `one nation-one foodgrain procurement policy` a nationwide issue, is all set to stage what it called the biggest ever protest against the Centre.

The protest is joined by the party working president and minister KT Rama Rao, and many TRS bigwigs, including ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs. The Telangana's ruling party claimed that the Centre isn`t procuring paddy from the Telangana farmers.

Recently, the TRS workers had blocked four National Highways in Telangana to press their demand for a "uniform" procurement policy in the country. The party decided to protest in Delhi in their bid to raise the issue at the national level.

On March 24, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal assured farmers of Telangana that there is absolutely no discrimination among the farmers from different states and added that some politicians in Telangana are misleading the farmers in the state.