Shanta Kumar to review rice procurement

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, DEC. 9. ``The TDP's stand on Ayodhya is very clear. We believe in secularism, unity and integrity of the country. We are giving outside support on the basis of the common programme which does not include contentious issues like common civil code and the Ram temple,'' the TD Parliamentary Party (TDPP) leader, Mr. K. Yerran Naidu, said here today. He was speaking to reporters after a meeting of the TDP's Parliamentary Party, specially convened by the party president, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, to discuss the Centre's refusal to come to the rescue of paddy farmers in AP and Mr. Vajpayee's controversial utterances on the Ram temple at Ayodhya. The party is since satisfied with the Centre's latest package to bail out the farmers.

Mr. Yerran Naidu said there was tension and confusion in the country as in Rae Bareili where a place of worship had been attacked. About the Prime Minister's statement on Ayodhya, he said Mr. Vajpayee should speak only about the NDA's common programme.

Mr. Yerran Naidu said the TDP and the Trinamool Congress had asked the Union Minister, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, at the Business Advisory Committee meeting yesterday to convey to the Prime Minister their feelings about his statements and their plea for issuing a clarification.

Meanwhile, the TDP suspended its tirade against the Centre over the tardy progress of paddy procurement by the FCI in the wake of the Centre permitting export of 20 lakh tonnes of rice and asking the FCI to procure 10 lakh tonnes from Andhra Pradesh and enhance the admixture ratio in `swarna masuri' variety from 10 to 13 per cent. The Union Minister for Food, Mr. Shanta Kumar, is coming here along with the Secretary, Department of Food, and Chairman and Managing Director of the Food Corporation of India on Monday to review the procurement of paddy.

The TDP MPs, who had staged a two-hour-long dharna outside Parliament on Friday on these issues, expressed satisfaction at the Centre's response and hoped that these incentives would help farmers receive the minimum support price (MSP). At the same time, they appealed to farmers to remain patient as the Government was committed to payment of MSP. Stating that Parliament would be in session till December 22, they offered to champion the farmers' cause if new problems arose in paddy procurement. Messrs. C. Ramachandraiah, A. Raj Kumar, S. Venugopalachari, S. Ramachandra Reddi, R. Ramachandraiah, R. Ramaiah and Mrs. Vanga Geetha, were present at the press conference.

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Section  : Southern States
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