Uttam Kumar Reddy refutes KTR’s ‘lies’ on paddy purchase

HYDERABAD

Civil Supplies and Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has accused the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leadership of spreading lies about the ongoing Rabi paddy purchase operations to mislead farmers and hide their own record of failed purchases.

In a sharp rebuttal to BRS working president KT Rama Rao’s allegations, Mr Reddy said, “His (KTR) only agenda is to create politically manufactured chaos among farmers. But it will backfire.”

“The Congress government is carrying out the largest purchase of paddy fields in the history of Telangana despite severe manpower shortages, massive logistical challenges and unprecedented scale of arrivals. While BRS is busy spreading confusion, the government is ensuring that every grain brought to farmers is bought and every rupee reaches farmers’ accounts,” he said.

Rejecting KTR’s allegations, the minister said the official figures revealed the hollowness of the BRS campaign. Till May 21, Telangana has already recorded 54.29 lakh tonnes of paddy arrivals out of which 46.21 LT has been procured, which is nearly 85% of the procurement so far. Purchase transactions of more than 6.32 lakh farmers have already been completed and ₹7,841 crore has been credited to farmers’ bank accounts.

Examining the previous BRS regime, the minister said that the Congress government had already overcome several Rabi procurement periods handled by the previous government. He pointed out that during the BRS regime, procurement was only 26.78 LT in Rabi 2021-22 and 36.63 LT in Rabi 2022-23, while the Congress government has already crossed 48.21 LT this season, with procurement still going on.

“Those who have failed farmers for years are now unable to digest the scale and transparency of the government’s farmer procurement model,” said Uttam Reddy.

Responding to allegations of a shortage of gun bags, the minister described them as “completely fabricated and irresponsible”. He said the government has already placed nearly 20 million gun bags in shopping malls and sufficient stock is available to handle the entire procurement process smoothly.

He said the government was conducting daily inspections, deploying more than 13,000 trucks and lorries every day, and continuously monitoring logistics, lifting and transportation. More than 43 liters of paddy rice have already been moved to rice mills, while other stocks have been transported to storage facilities without interruption.

He also fended off attempts by the opposition to make political use of farmers’ deaths by linking them to delays in awarding contracts. “Using farmers for political drama is shameful and insensitive,” he said.

Published – 22 May 2026 21:22 IST