All major opposition parties on Tuesday staged a walk-out from the State Legislative Assembly over the State Government’s failure to give them a convincing reply on an order imposing ban on export of rice to other States.
Replying to a question raised by Lok Satta MLA Dr Jaya Prakash Narayan during Question Hour on Tuesday, Civil Supplies Minister D Sridhar Babu admitted there was a ban on sale of superfine varieties of rice from to other States. “With a view to ensure that superfine preferred varieties like BPT, Sonamasuri, Sambamasuri, Vijaymasuri, etc., are available to the consumers in the retail market at affordable prices within the State, it is ensured that these superfine preferred varieties are sold within the State only to contain the prices of rice,” he said.
The minister said that due to sale of these varieties within the State, their prices were less than those compared to neighbouring States.
However, the minister’s reply led to an intense debate for about two and a half hours on the rice movement in the State. Dr JP said that the government had violated provisions of the Essential Commodities Act to restrict movement of rice and thereby deprived farmers of better prices on their produce. He said the State Government had no rights to restrict the export of rice other State.
However, the Civil Supplies minister could not give a convincing replying. Intervening on the issue Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said that the ban was imposed by the Centre and the prices of rice would increase in the State if the ban was lifted.
Speaking on the issue, Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu accused the State Government of being anti-farmer. He said farmers were being forced to sell their produce at lower prices due to the ban. He said the cost of agricultural products including seeds have increased by about 300 to 400 per cent. But the farmers were not getting remunerative prices for their produce.
The Chief Minister, Civil Supplies Minister and Agriculture Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana failed to convince the opposition parties which continued to grill the government on several problems being faced by the farmers in the State.
Ministers Botsa Satyanarayana and D Manikeshwara Prasad Rao, TDP members D Narendra, Revanth Reddy, Gali Muddu Krishnamma Naidu and R Chandrasekhar, E Laksminarayana (BJP), J Rangareddy (CPM) and G Mallesh (CPI) also spoke on the issue.
Later, the TDP, CPI, CPM and BJP MLAs staged a walkout from the House in protest while the Lok Satta member registered a “strong protest”.
Meanwhile, Speaker Nadendla Manohar announced said a short-duration discussion on the agriculture sector would be taken up in the Assembly on Friday. (INN)