Uttam rejects BRS claims, says govt procuring every grain

Hyderabad: Irrigation and civil supplies minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Friday accused the BRS of spreading lies to mislead farmers and hide its own failures in paddy procurement during its term. Referring to BRS working president K T Rama Rao’s allegation that paddy procurement had been delayed, Uttam said, “His sole agenda is to create politically manufactured chaos among the farmers. But it will backfire.”

Stating that the Congress govt was carrying out the largest paddy procurement operation in Telangana’s history despite severe manpower shortage, massive logistical challenges and an unprecedented scale of arrivals, Uttam said the BRS was spreading confusion. “The Congress govt is ensuring that every grain brought by farmers is procured and every rupee reaches farmers’ accounts,” he said.

Rejecting KTR’s allegations, the minister said official figures had exposed the “lies of the BRS campaign”. “By May 21, Telangana had already recorded 54.2 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy arrivals, of which 46.21 LMT had been procured, accounting for nearly 85% completion. Procurement transactions of more than 6.3 lakh farmers had already been completed, and payments worth Rs 7,841 crore had been directly credited into farmers’ bank accounts,” Uttam said.

He said the Congress govt had already outperformed several Rabi procurement seasons handled by the previous BRS govt. During the BRS regime, procurement stood at only 26.7 LMT in Rabi 2021-22 and 36.6 LMT in Rabi 2022-23, whereas the Congress govt had already crossed 48.2 LMT procurement this season, operations continuing.

Responding strongly to allegations of gunny bag shortages, Uttam termed the accusations “fabricated and irresponsible”. He said the govt had already positioned nearly 20 crore gunny bags across procurement centres and that adequate stocks were available to ensure a smooth procurement process. He added that the govt was conducting daily reviews, deploying more than 13,000 trucks and lorries every day, and continuously monitoring logistics, lifting and transportation.

Uttam also slammed attempts by the opposition to politically exploit farmer deaths by linking them to procurement delays. “Using farmers for political drama is shameful and insensitive. The BRS leadership is resorting to desperation politics because it has lost public trust,” he said.