: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday accused BRS chief Chandrashekar Rao of depriving the poor of fine quality rice during his tenure, even as he launched the supply of sanna biyyam to ration card holders in the state. He called the fine rice distribution a milestone in the evolution of food security. After launching the scheme by handing over fine rice packets to 10 beneficiaries at a public meeting organised at Rajiv Pranganam at Huzurnagar on Sunday evening, the Chief Minister said it was the greatest initiative undertaken by any government after the Rs 1.90 per kg rice launched by the Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy government in 1982 and Rs 2 per kg rice scheme of the N.T. Rama Rao government in 1983
The state government had decided on the scheme so that tribal and poor families could consume fine cooked rice, Revanth Reddy told a public meeting, which was attended by over 40,000 people in Huzurnagar. “The BRS government hoarded Rs 21,000 crore worth paddy with rice millers,” Revanth Reddy said. Rice millers during the BRS rule became richer by black marketing PDS rice. They procured it at Rs 10 a kg, re-milled it as fine-quality rice and sold it at Rs 30 a kg during the BRS tenure, the Chief Minister said.
Revanth Reddy recalled that Chandrashekar Rao had cautioned the farmers that cultivation of paddy was a suicidal act and had announced that the BRS government would not purchse paddy from them. However, Rao himself took up the cultivation of paddy in 1,000 acres in his Erravelli farmhouse, Revanth Reddy said. While Kaveri Seeds purchased the paddy at Rs 4,500 per quintal from Rao’s farmhouse, farmers across the state struggled to get Rs 2,000 per quintal, he added
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