Centre’s failure burdens Rs 1,000 crore on TS: Harish

Marketing Minister T Harish Rao today expressed displeasure over the Centre ignoring the plea of Telangana government with regard to procurement of Redgram produce.

Harish Rao held a review meeting at the Council with officials here. Despite writing letters and repeated appeals, Union Agriculture Minister Radhamohan Singh failed to provide a helping hand to procure Redgram which left the State to bear about Rs 1005 crore burden, he said. “The Centre has thrown our letters into waste paper baskets and failed to shoulder its responsibility, Harish said. However, the efforts made by him with regular monitoring and tracking had yielded better results.

He directed the officials of Nafed, Markfed and Haca to release the arrears amount to the farmers for the Redgram produce. As the state reaped in more Redgram produce through 2.51 lakh hectares the government procured Rs 1415.19 cr worth Redgram of 2,59,699 metric tons. The minister asked the officials to ensure that the farmers get Rs 183.86 cr from Nafed and Rs 52.46 cr from Markfed and Haca agencies without any further delay. The step motherly steps of the Centre incurred losses to our farmers and a burden of Rs 1000 cr on the state government he fumed. Though we appealed repeatedly the Centre procured only 75,300 metric tons of Redgram worth Rs 410 cr and the Telangana Government had to bear Rs 1000 crore, he said.

Harish Rao appreciated that farmers, who migrated from Mahbubnagar district returned back for farming and got benefits through Red gram cultivation he said. He attributed the benefits of MSP to the produce to timely steps by the officials for procuring the produce, timely rains and release of amounts to the farmers. While the state procured 1,84,369 metric tons of Redgram the government gave Rs 600 cr bank guarantee for the agencies to procure. (NSS)